We are writing to react to the article on Mighty Corp. which appeared in Mr. Jarius Bondoc’s column “Gotcha†published in The Philippine STAR last Dec. 6.
We would like to point out that in our 68 years as a small, purely Filipino company, we have yet to receive a complaint from agencies like the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) regarding our operations and tax payments. In all these 68 years, the BOC and BIR have closely monitored our operations, reporting of sales and imports, and taxes. Since the issue on our alleged technical smuggling and tax evasion came about, official documents from the said agencies have not surfaced. So far, only figures from “confidential†reports and findings from a paid research—by our competition, no less—are being used by the media to attack on the Filipino brand that Mighty Corp. has worked hard for to establish.
Damaging articles claim that there are discrepancies between our records and that of the BIR and BOC. If such discrepancies exist, how come neither agency has come forward with a case? More importantly, how come officials like BIR Commissioner Kim Henares don’t seem to be taking these claims seriously?
In fact, in earlier interviews, Henares has already ruled out any presence of cigarette smuggling in the country. She and officials of the BIR Large Taxpayers Service have even attested how our market strategy and the new sin tax law have worked to our advantage, yielding an increase in our sales and corresponding taxes.
Another thing we would like to stress is that Mighty Corp. is not a party to the cases filed by the states of California, Oklahoma, and Oregon. We were never served summons, thus, we were not able to take necessary legal action and make an appearance before the court of law. Furthermore, the only reason we were charged of unfair competition is because we were thought to be selling our products in the US without complying with the reserve fund requirements of the three states’ Health Code.
What Mr. Bondoc failed to mention in his column is the fact that the judgments were passed through a default and that the same are not enforceable in the Philippines, considering that the decisions rendered were final and executory since the year 2003. Under the Philippine Rules of Court, the satisfaction of judgment should be filed within a 10-year period.
In his column, Mr. Bondoc also said that we are indeed being bullied by tobacco industry biggies, but that it is “beside the point.†We beg to disagree. In the first place, the only reason we find ourselves being accused of so-and-so illicit trade practices is because our competitors cannot stand the idea of a wholly Filipino-owned company eating up their market share. The way we see it, Mr. Belmonte, this whole fiasco is a textbook example of monopolistic behavior at work—big industry players resorting to low blows and dirty tactics to kill their competition.
It pains us to realize that in our desire to provide the everyday Juan dela Cruz a good but affordable smoke, we are being bombarded with controversy and malicious allegations. It is disheartening to know that a humble Filipino company like ours cannot thrive in our own country without being choked by the dirty war games of our competition.
It is also equally alarming how the media is quick to accept “confidential†reports and made-up figures as fact. As a nationalist company, we feel dismayed that while we are exhausting all efforts to uphold the Filipino identity in our products, members of the media and general public turn on to us on the account of baseless and senseless speculations.
We hope we have enlightened you through this letter. Thank you for accommodating our views in your widely read paper.