Bulacan raid yields P50 million worth of smuggled goods

Port of Clark personnel tested negative for illegal drugs use

On Oct 11, 2021

MICP-CIIS chief, Alvin Enciso, examining some of the suspected smuggled red onions they found at a warehouse in Meycauayan, Bulacan last October 7, 2021. Some P50 million worth of suspected smuggled goods, including fake cosmetic and consumer products have been found in the premises (photo credit: BOC-PIAD).

A JOINT team from the Bureau of Customs and the Philippine Coast Guard raided a warehouse in Meycauayan, Bulacan where they confiscated suspected smuggled goods worth more than P50 million last October 7, 2021.

In a press statement last Monday, October 11, 2021, MICP intelligence chief, Alvin Enciso, in a report to district collector Romeo Allan Rosales and Intelligence Group deputy commissioner, Raniel Ramiro, said acting on the approved ‘LOA’ (Letter of Authority) approved by Comm. Rey Leonardo Guerrero, he and his men, together with members from the PCG’s ‘Task Force Aduana,’ swooped down on the warehouse registered to ‘Elite Globus Primeholdings Corp., located in Bgy. Bahay Pare, Meycauayan, where they discovered some 2,000 sacks of imported red onions, a highly-regulated agricultural product.

Enciso said they also found boxes of frozen seafood, cosmetic and health products without approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and assorted fake consumer and household products.

“The imported articles with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and FDA violations were, ipso facto, forfeited and are due for condemnation,” Enciso told Pinoy Exposé.

“Meanwhile, for the agricultural and household products, the owner of the warehouse is given fifteen (15) days to present proof of payment of duties and taxes, under Sec. 224 of Republic Act No. 10863 or the CMTA (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act),” he added.

Enciso also reported that customs seals and padlocks have been installed to secure the discovered imported goods pending their complete inventory.

He added that should the owner of the onions and the household goods fail to present any proof of their legal importation, seizure and forfeiture proceeding would follow.

An officer from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arranging the urine samples of Port of Clark employees during a surprise drug test last August 19, 2021. The belated result showed that not a single employee tested positive for drug use, according to district collector, Alexandra Lumontad (photo credit: BOC-PIAD).

Also on Monday, the Port of Clark reported to Guerrero that a surprise random drug test resulted to not a single customs employee at the port tested positive for the use of illegal drugs.

District collector Alexandra Lumontad, said the surprise drug test was conducted with the assistance from the Region 3 office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) involving 20 employees from the Customs Police (Enforcement and Security Service, ESS), the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), district security guards and both organic and contract of service employees.

In a brief media statement, Lumontad said the drug test was in compliance to the directive of Guerrero for all customs districts to conduct a surprise drug test in keeping with the national government’s policy of making sure that no government employee is hooked or engaged in the illegal drugs trade.