The goods that came into the Philippines without paying the usual duties and taxes will be a value of about PHP 2.3 trillion worth of goods. And how much are we losing? It has ripple effects. It is smuggling with ripple effects in the economy. As the saying goes, there can be no government without money,” said FPI chairman Jesus Lim Arranza.

Paul Oliver Pacunayen, acting chief of the Intellectual Property Rights Division of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), said the five most smuggled products are cigarettes, illegal drugs, counterfeit goods, agricultural products and other general merchandise. He said this was based on the number of warehouses raided by BOC agents in the first half of 2024. The BOC seized billions worth of illegal cigarettes and vapes this year, which explains the drop in tobacco tax revenue.

It is estimated that about 20 per cent of cigarettes sold in the Philippines are illegal, with tobacco tax revenues dropping by PHP 41 billion in the last two years due to smuggling, leaving funds short for the government’s health programmes and the development projects of local government units, the FPI said.



Bienvenido-Oplas Jr, president of Bienvenido S. Oplas, Jr. Research Consultancy Services and Minimal Government Thinkers, said in his regular newspaper column that cigarette smuggling increased when the tobacco tax exceeded PHP 50 (USD 0.86) per pack in 2021.