MANILA, Philippines–The Bureau of Customs recently seized a total of smuggled goods in two separate operations at the Port of Cebu and at a warehouse in Angeles City, Pampanga.
In a statement, the bureau said that more than P76 million worth of “fake” ‘Mighty’ and ‘Marvel’ brands of cigarettes from China were apprehended on Thursday at the Port of Cebu misdeclared as “oval dish” consigned to ‘Giomab Trading.’
Port of Cebu district collector, Atty. Charlito Martin Mendoza, in a report to Comm. Rey Leonardo Guerrero, said a day before, he placed the shipment under alert thru a ‘pre-lodgment control order’ based on a “derogatory information” coming from Intelligence Officer 3 (IO3) Carlo Bautista, head of the local unit of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS).
A 100 percent physical inspection of the shipment witnessed by customs officials and the Philippine Coast Guard the next day led to the discovery of the contraband totaling 1,522 master cases of cigarettes loaded in a 20-footer container van.
Mendoza said the shipment had already been seized based on a warrant of seizure and detention (WSD) he issued afterwards.
On the same day, in a separate operation in Pampanga province approved by Guerrero, a combined team from the CIIS and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) frozen food products valued at more than P25 million were also seized inside a warehouse located in Bgy. Anunas, Angeles City.
The composite team acted based on a ‘Letter of Authority’ (LOA) and ‘Mission Order’ (MO) signed by Guerrero and was served to a certain ‘Jimgold M. Tan,’ the “representative” of the warehouse owner, who remains unnamed up to now.
The bulk of the food items consists of frozen ‘Peking ducks,’ valued at more than P23 million, while the rest consisted of soy sauce, oil, and frozen fish balls, squid balls, vegetables and pork meat among others.
The importation of ‘Peking ducks’ is currently banned due to the threat of bird flu and the importation of poultry products are only allowed for those coming from the United States, Canada and Australia (Paul M. Gutierrez).