Filipino owned Mighty Corp. has been in the midst of controversies several months ago. They warned that a foreign-dominated monopoly might kill all remaining low-priced local cigarette brands in the market.
“Recent moves by our competitors, particularly a multinational company, against MC indicate a calibrated campaign to bring us to our knees and push us out of the picture,” Mighty executive vice president Oscar Barrientos said.
According to Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said: “It is natural for Philip Morris to fight change because you want to keep your monopolistic position. But in this environment, why should we, as a country, allow a monopoly?”
With the malicious accusation against Mighty on technical smuggling, tax evasion and all other possible crimes. “These baseless and malicious accusations merely mask the real agenda of our competitor which is to kill off all other local brands, especially the low-priced ones,” he said.
Barrientos said a foreign-dominated monopoly of the market was geared towards promoting mid-market brands since profit margins in the low-cost brand category were low.
“They want to kill off all remaining low-cost local brands in the market by hook or by crook so that the playing field will be cleared for their expensive foreign brands,” the MC executive said.
“This is a critical moment in the local tobacco industry’s history, and in fact for Philippine industry in general as well,” he said.
Barrientos added that the company would address all the accusations hurled against it and exhaust all legal means to stave off the monopoly’s alleged efforts to kill off other local brands that it has not yet acquired.
“We’ll fight them for sure. It’s an uphill battle, but we cannot and will not allow a foreign bully to just trample on us and any other Filipino company that it views as a threat to its campaign for market domination. As big as our competitor is, it’s a shame that it has to resort to lies and deceit,” he said.
Mighty had contributed in the tobacco industry by increasing its market share in the low-cost brand category.
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