BOC ASKED TO RELEASE VESSEL WITH JUNKING OF SMUGGLING CASE

On Jan 28, 2025

THROWBACK. The MV Sunward that was found carrying 4,000 tons of refined white sugar from Thailand but without any import permit. The SRA’s proposal to sell the sugar thru the government’s ‘KADIWA’ outlets is much easier said than done (photo credit: BOC-PIAD).

THE representative of a Chinese-owned vessel has asked the Bureau of Customs, thru the Department of Justice (DOJ), to release the vessel it impounded in early 2023 at the Port of Batangas for allegedly carrying 4,000 metric tons (80,000 bags) of ‘smuggled’ refined white sugar from Thailand valued at more than P260 million.

In a letter dated January 14, 2025, to DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, thru Assistant Secretary Mico Clavano, spokesperson and head of the Appeals Management Office (SAMO), Mylene Sakaluran, official representative of ‘Triumph Holding Company,’ asked for the immediate transmittal to the BOC of Sec. Remulla’s decision dismissing the case for ‘large scale agricultural smuggling’ filed by the Department of Agriculture (DA) thru Assistant Secretary James Layug against the ship’s owners and its Filipino captains and crews.

Triumph is the registered owner of the ‘MV Sunward’ that was carrying 4,000 metric tons of refined sugar when it was apprehended by a joint team from the DA and the BOC at the POB last January 14, 2023.

Right after, the DA said they planned to distribute the sugar thru the government’s ‘Kadiwa Rolling Stores’ in support of President Marcos’ campaign to lower down the price of the commodity that was unusually high at the time (see also Pinoy Exposé, January 17, 2023).

Arrested during the operation were the two Filipino captains and 12 of the vessel’s crews, some of them, Chinese nationals.

However, in his decision dated September 14, 2024, Remulla noted that the Batangas Prosecutor’s Office on May 31, 2023, dismissed the complaint and a month later, also denied the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by the DA.

Remulla further noted that in ruling in favor of Triumph, the DA decided subsequently to withdraw its petition for review, necessitating the dismissal of the case and the release of the vessel.