FAKE DECLARATION, GENUINE RICE

On Aug 12, 2020

A drug-sniffing dog is seen going over the shipment of smuggled rice from Taiwan last August 10, 2020 at the Port of Cebu to make sure that no illegal drugs were among the confiscated shipment (photo credit: BOC-Cebu).

A SHIPMENT of rice from Taiwan was seized at the Port of Cebu last August 10, 2020, belonging to a woman with fake address who also misdeclared the cargo as “personal effects.”

In a belated report to Bureau of Customs commissioner, Rey Leonardo Guerrero, Atty. Charlito Martin Mendoza, acting district collector, Port of Cebu, said the shipment arrived last July 23, 2020.

The official said he issued a ‘pre-lodgment control order’ against the shipment last July 29, 2020, after he was informed by the local Customs Police district commander, SPAS Jerry M. Arizabal, that it actually contained rice, based on a “confidential information” received by Arizabal.

Further investigation also revealed that the owner, a certain ‘Theresa Lawas,’ is not a resident of Bgy. Pansoy, municipality of Sogod, Cebu province; the cargo manifest also stated the container is loaded with “personal effects.”

Mendoza said on actual examination last August 10, 2020, witnessed by other customs officers and representatives from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the local customs brokers group, the container was found loaded with 495 bags of ‘Myanmar White Rice.’

Mendoza placed the value of the seized shipment at more than P525,000.00.

Last month, the official further noted that the port’s anti-smuggling campaign resulted to the confiscation of various smuggled goods worth more than P14 million.