Senator Win Gatchalian is calling for administrative penalties against officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) whose repeated lapses in procedure have led to the dismissal of cigarette smuggling cases in court.

Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, flagged the issue following a random review of smuggling cases that revealed several dismissals were due to technical errors, rather than a lack of evidence.

“There have been operations where smuggled products were successfully seized, but the cases were dismissed because of technicalities,” Gatchalian said. “These operations should have been airtight from the start. Even when the evidence is strong, we end up losing the case because proper procedures weren’t followed.”

The senator stressed that such negligence undermines efforts to combat illicit trade and sends the wrong message to smugglers. He urged that BOC and BIR officials found repeatedly failing to observe standard protocols should face administrative charges and appropriate sanctions.

Gatchalian cited two cases where the court ruled the warrantless search conducted by authorities was illegal, resulting in the inadmissibility of seized cigarette boxes as evidence. In another instance, prosecutors failed to properly trace the goods from import documents to physical inspection, leading to the failure to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

The senator said tougher accountability measures are necessary to ensure that smuggling cases are not derailed by procedural errors and that government efforts to curb illicit trade are not wasted.