• CHERYL G. CRUZ
A Bacolod Regional Trial Court judge has sentenced a businessman to a maximum 16 years imprisonment, and to pay total fines of P200,000 plus interest, after he was found “guilty beyond reasonable doubt” of the distribution and sale of counterfeit cigarettes, in violation of Republic Act 8293, or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.
Let warrants of arrest be issued against Adam Mangoda for the service of his sentence, presiding judge Sue Lynn Lowie-Jolingan of Bacolod RTC Branch 53 ordered in her 45-page decision, dated June 27 this year, and received by concerned parties last week.
Mangoda was arrested Feb. 15, 2018 after operatives of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, in the presence of barangay officials and private complainant PMFTC Inc., among others, found and seized from his house in Barangay 35, Bacolod, a total of 279 reams of counterfeit Marlboro and Fortune cigarettes, with fake BIR stamps, court records show.
“The BIR filed criminal tax cases against the accused for violation of Section 130 or failure to file excise tax returns, Section 236 or unlawful pursuit of business, Section 254 or attempt to evade or defeat excise tax, Section 263 or unlawful possession of articles subject to excise tax without payment of tax, and Section 265 or unlawful possession of spurious internal revenue tax stamps, all in violation of Republic Act No. 8424, or the National Internal Revenue Code,” the court added.
The private complainant, meanwhile, filed the four criminal cases for violation of RA 8293, particularly sections 155 and 168, in relation to Section 170, or on trademark infringement and unfair competition.
On July 27, 2018, Mangoda was arraigned and entered a plea of not guilty for all cases, and was later released after posting a cash bond of P15,000 for each case. He, however, failed to appear during the pre-trial on Oct. 1, 2018, and his cash bond was eventually forfeited, and he remained at-large.
In her decision, Judge Lowie-Jolingan said that Mangoda’s act of “storing, offering for sale, distribution, and sale of counterfeit cigarettes bearing the Marlboro and Fortune trademarks of private complainants constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition.”
He was sentenced to two years minimum to four years maximum imprisonment, and to pay a fine of P50,000, subject to six percent interest per annum until fully paid, in each of the four cases. | CGC
