BOC chalks over P241 million in seized contrabands

THE appointment of Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio continues to give success to the agency’s anti-smuggling campaign that resulted to the confiscation of smuggled agricultural products and illegal drugs worth more than P241 million in the last two weeks.

In an operation approved by the customs chief in Navotas City last March 17, 2023, a combined team from the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), Inspectorate and Enforcement Office, Department of Agriculture (IEO-DA), National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), announced the discovery of an assortment of frozen meat products in 7 warehouses and cold storage facilities valued at more than P120 million.

Armed with a ‘LOA’ (letter of authority) signed by Rubio, Manila International Container Port (MICP) intelligence chief, Alvin Enciso, in his initial report to the commissioner and Intelligence Group (IG) deputy commissioner Juvy Max Uy, said they found various poultry products, such as frozen pork legs, chicken drumsticks, pork spareribs, squid rings, crayfish, pork ears, pork hinges, abalone, brawley beef, pork aorta, chicken feet, pork riblets, golden pampano, pangasius fillet, boneless pork ham, fish tofu, and pork ears.

While most of the frozen seafood were from China, there were also beef from Brazil and Australia, pork from the United States, and pork ears from Russia.

Enciso added they also found an empty warehouse that was purposely converted to be used as a cold storage facility.

The owners of the goods would be given time to present importation documents or proof of payment by the customs authorities, in the absence of which all the items would be seized in favor of the government, in accordance with customs regulations.

Earlier, last March 10, Comm. Rubio again went to the MICP to personally inspect the contents of 18 container vans declared as ‘pizza doughs’ and ‘fishballs’ but which turned out to contain tons of imported yellow and red onions from China.

Rubio noted that even the ‘covering declaration’ of pizza doughs and fishballs were not covered by the requisite license and permit from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), violating Republic Act No. 9711 or the Foods and Drugs Act of 2009.

XIP leads in seizure of illegal drugs

Meanwhile, in a separate report to Rubio, Atty. Lourdes Mangaoang, the chief of the bureau’s X-Ray Inspection Project (XIP), said her field personnel assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) successfully identified and subsequently seized two shipments of illegal drugs despite efforts by the shipper to hide the contrabands.

In the first incident last March 10, 2023, Mangaong said that 11.756 kilos of shabu worth P79.941 million were found by XIP personnel in a shipment from Pakistan declared as ‘terry towels.’

Mangaong said the attending XIP inspector immediately marked the shipment, actually consisting of ‘Puffer jackets,’ “for verification” due to the “irregular and suspicious” x-ray image of the jackets.

The subsequent actual inspection together with the PDEA subsequently resulted to the discovery of the illegal drugs that were found inside the jackets’ linings.

The consignee who was present to claim the package, Anie Rose Sarvano, was immediately arrested. On the other hand, the shipper was identified as ‘AIMEX General Trading’ based in Lagore, Punjab.

In another XIP inspection two days later, on March 12, 2023, female passenger Randriamparanya Ep Harisoa Sandra Rakontoniaina from Madagascar, was also arrested after arriving at the NAIA Terminal 1 from a flight from Addis Ababa.

This, after alert XIP personnel found 6 kilos of shabu valued at P40.8 million from her luggage.

Overall, the value of the apprehended contrabands by the CIIS and the XIP totaled P241 million.

‘Strengthened’ partnership; praise for the Intel Group

A week prior, last March 8, 2023, the customs chief personally reached out to Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, to further strengthen the campaign against smuggling thru the speedy prosecution of smuggling cases.

In a talk with Pinoy Exposé afterwards, the customs chief said the justice secretary agreed to “revisit” several policies and circulars to “resolve bottlenecks and streamline communications and procedures” in the processing of smuggling-related cases.

His proposal for a ‘BOC-DOJ Legal Summit’ was also accepted, which is aimed at renewing both sides’ commitment in the anti-smuggling campaign with the DOJ assisting the BOC in the area of prosecution preparation and the BOC assisting the DOJ in the area of customs processes.

Comm. Rubio noted that since 2016, the BOC has already filed more than 400 anti-smuggling complaints thru the bureau’s Action Team Against Smuggling (BATAS).

However, the actual prosecution and filing of information before the courts have proven tedious and has always been a cause of criticism against the BOC during every congressional investigation on smuggling.

“We convey our sincere gratitude to Secretary Remulla for his support in ensuring a more aggressive prosecution of cases to serve justice and punish those found guilty of violating national laws,” the customs chief said.

In a related development, the Intel Group (IG) headed by former Philippine Army major general Juvymax Uy, has been cited by Nike Asia Pacific on the IG’s uncompromising campaign against counterfeit goods that include the highly popular brand name.

Representatives from the company last March 9, 2023 visited the IG to convey their personal appreciation to the efforts of the IG against fake goods.

The company added that the bureau’s campaign targeting fake goods encouraged them to increase their market presence in the country thru the putting up more physical outlets and e-commerce platforms.

Only last February 28, 2023 (see link here), the IG spearheaded an operation in Binondo, Manila, which resulted to the confiscation of over P10 billion worth of counterfeit products, some of them including the Nike brand.

The confiscation is thus far the biggest thus far this year by the BOC-IG.