Tanker with 40K liters of smuggled fuel apprehended

THE Port of Limay of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) announced the seizure of a fuel tanker last October 5, 2023 loaded with 40,000 liters of smuggled fuel worth P2.4 million.

Port of Limay acting district collector, Guillermo Pedro Francia, in a belated report to Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio, said the fuel tanker tried to pass through a BOC checkpoint but failed to present any document showing its cargo was not smuggled.

Francia said the site (field) test conducted by the Customs Police (Enforcement Security Service) returned a “failed” test on the cargo, prompting a more in-depth investigation by the ESS – Customs Police Division (CPD).

Subsequent verification of the initial test result led to the confiscation of the smuggled fuel, Francia added.

Francia also warned that that buyers of unmarked fuel run the risk of not only losing the illegally imported fuel they bought but also the truck carrying the fuel, which is valued at around P5 million.

Meanwhile, the BOC also announced the filing last October 6, 2023, of criminal complaints for smuggling against two suspected smugglers at the Department of Justice.

The BOC, however, citing RA 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, declined to give the identities of the suspected smugglers, a position it has adopted since the start of the Marcos administration.

The BOC claimed the first case involved the attempted smuggling of 652 drums of sodium cyanide with 98 percent purity from China sometime last August but which was misdeclared as ‘Molybdate’ from the United States.

The second case purportedly refer to the misdeclaration of two used units of helicopters along with their associated parts that arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) sometime last May.

From January 2023 to date, the BOC claimed to have filed 87 criminal complaints with the DOJ, the details of which were not disclosed to the public and the media.