BOC-Zamboanga pulps P50 million cigarettes

Another P10.6 million illicit cigarettes apprehended

On Apr 19, 2021

Personnel from the Zamboanga Bureau of Fire and Protection immersed in pressurized water the more than P50 million worth of smuggled cigarettes during their destruction at a Customs-rented warehouse in Zamboanga City, April 13, 2021. The cigarettes were also pulped with the use of a backhoe as part of BOC protocol to ensure not a single stick can still be used or sold in the local market (photo credit: BOC)

FOLLOWING the strict mandate of Bureau of Customs (BOC) commissioner, Rey Leonardo ‘Jagger’ Guerrero to prevent possible theft, diversion to the local market or pilferage of seized smuggled goods, the Port of Zamboanga announced the destruction of more than P50 million worth of smuggled cigarettes.

Port of Zamboanga district collector, Atty. Segundo Sigmundfreud Z. Barte, in a report to Guerrero, said the destruction of the cigarettes was held at a BOC-rented warehouse in Bgy. Baliwasan, Zamboanga City, last April 13, 2021, with the activity also witnessed by representatives from other national government agencies, local officials and stakeholders, namely:

Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine National Police, Philippine Marines, Philippine Navy, National Bureau of Investigation, Joint Task Force Zamboanga, the Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and, Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Customs and military personnel removing the plastic covering from reams of cigarettes at the start of the destruction operation (BOC photo).

A total of 1,278 master cases and 513 reams of cigarettes seized in separate anti-smuggling operations since December 2020, were destroyed.

Barte added a payloader first crushed the cigarettes before they were soaked with used oil to prevent recycling. Afterwards, personnel from the local Bureau of Fire and Protection (BFP), soaked the cigarettes with pressurized water before they were brought to a sanitary landfill in Bgy. Salaan, for final disposal.

The destruction is the first condemnation activity by the port for the year.

Last year, the Port of Zamboanga also held three similar activities where more than P1.94 billion of smuggled cigarettes, raw materials and fake revenue stamps were destroyed, Barte noted further.

Members of the joint BOC-AFP task group in Zamboanga, taking inventory of the smuggled cigarettes they seized on board the ‘MB Princess Amina’ worth P10.6 million off the coast of Bgy. Sinunuc, Zamboanga City, last April 15, 2021 (photo credit: BOC)

Further demonstrating the port’s commitment to the government’s anti-smuggling campaign, Barte also bared that just two days after the activity, they also launched a successful interdiction operation off the coast of Bgy. Sinunuc, Zamboanga City, that resulted to the confiscation of 300 cases of smuggled cigarettes worth more than P10.6 million.

The official added that operatives from the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) and the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS/Customs Police), acting on an intelligence information, immediately coordinated with Naval Intelligence and Security Group, Western Mindanao (NISG-WM) and, the Naval Forces, Western Mindanao (NFWM), for the inspection of the ‘MB Princess Amina,’ which departed from Jolo, Sulu bound for the Zamboanga peninsula.

The operation proved successful, Barte said, adding appropriate charges for violation of customs and other related laws are being readied against the suspects while a warrant of seizure and detention (WSD) against the cigarettes has been issued by his office.

As a regional collection district for Region 11, the Port of Zamboanga also covers the customs offices at the Zamboanga International Airport and the subports in the so-called ‘Basulta’ islands consisting of Basilan, Jolo and Tawi-tawi. ###