Court acquits 102 Filipinos in fake cigar factory raid
A court in Pangasinan acquitted 102 victims of human trafficking who were wrongfully accused and imprisoned for nearly two years.
According to their lawyers, the charges filed against them by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) were based on false accusations.
Judge Roselyn Andrada-Borja of the Regional Trial Court Branch 53 dismissed all four cases due to the “insufficiency of evidence and failure of the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused.”
The court also confirmed that it approved a demurrer to evidence, resulting in the immediate release of all 102 prisoners.
On November 28, 2023, a raid was carried out by joint operatives from the BIR and the Pangasinan Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Barangay Carmay in Rosales town, where the Chinese employers and the 102 Filipino workers were arrested.
Court documents identified Wu Niko, a Chinese national, as the primary accused, along with 27 other associates and 102 Filipinos, who faced charges of unlawful possession of fake BIR stamps and other materials used for manufacturing counterfeit cigarettes.
The charged Filipinos were recruited from the provinces of Masbate, Negros, and Bulacan, were promised factory jobs. However, they were unaware that their workplace in Rosales was a secret factory producing counterfeit cigarettes with fake BIR stamps.
Following their arrests, 64 of the accused Filipinos were able to post bail, while 38 remained in custody until the court dismissed all charges.
Meanwhile, the Chinese nationals, including Wu Niko, posted bail but failed to appear for their arraignment in January 2024, and remain at large.
In their motion to dismiss, defense lawyers argued that a prosecution witness admitted during cross-examination that the inclusion of the 102 Filipinos in the case was “based solely on assumption” because they were simply present at the scene during the raid. (Ahikam Pasion)
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