THE Bureau of Customs – NAIA intercepted 28 parcels of various firearms, parts and accessories with an estimated aggregate value of P1.5 million at the Central Mail Exchange (CMEC) in Pasay City.
NAIA district collector, Carmelita ‘Mimel’ Talusan, in a report to customs commissioner, Rey Leonardo ‘Jagger’ Guerrero, said she ordered the immediate seizure of the shipment, noting it arrived without the required import permit from the Firearms and Explosive Office of the Philippine National Police (FEO-PNP).
Talusan said the firearms violated Section 117 and Section 1113 of Republic Act No. 10863 (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act) in relation to R.A. No. 10591 otherwise known as the ‘Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.’
The official also credited the “vigilance” of the bureau’s Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS-NAIA), the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS-NAIA) for the successful interdiction operation.
The bureau’s statement of the incident dated October 17, 2020, however, did not name the consignee or sender of the contraband.
In a separate report to Guerrero, Talusan also informed that a day earlier, BOC-NAIA again seized another shipment of the “party drug,” ‘ecstasy’ also at the CMEC.
The seized items consisted of 196 pieces of ecstasy and 151 grams of MDMA powder/crystal (raw ecstasy) with an aggregate value of P750,000.
The parcel, she added, was sent by a certain ‘Jansen J.J.K.’ from Amersfoort, Netherlands, and declared as “keychain” intended for Cebu City.
The shipment has been turned over to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for safekeeping and further investigation.
Talusan noted further that since January 2020, BOC-NAIA, in partnership with PDEA and NAIA-IADITG (Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group) had thus far intercepted 41 different shipments of illegal drugs with a total value of P83.6 million. Of this number, 13 shipments involved ecstasy valued at more than P40 million.
Port of Cagayan de Oro adopts faster cargo release system
At the Port of Cagayan de Oro, district collector John Simon announced the adoption of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation) standard time cargo releasing system (FAST-CaRes) beginning next month.
Under the program, Simon said they aim to release a shipment the region’s ‘standard time’ of only 30 minutes, starting from the time of the electronic lodgement of the customs good’s declaration to the shipment’s release to its consignee/importer.
Simon further informed Guerrero that, thus far, “pre-selected companies” have already expressed their participation to the bureau’s pilot project.
The official said the companies were “pre-selected” on the basis of their being the “most trusted
traders” involved in the movement of bulk and break-bulk cargoes in Northern Mindanao, for the time being.
Identified participants of the project are, Petron Corporation, Jetti Philippines Inc., SL Harbor BulkTerminal, FDC Misamis Power Corp., Steag State Power Inc., Philippine Sinter Corp., Phoenix Petroleum Corp.;
Minergy Power Corp., Pryce Gases Inc., and, Pilipinas Kao Incorporated.
The project is to be supervised by the Office of the Strategy Management (OSM) of the Port of Cagayan de Oro headed by Atty. Roswald Pague.
Simon added he considers the project as the port’s “showcase and initiative” in the area of trade facilitation in of the 2020 ‘10-Point Priority Program’ of Guerrero.