SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna -- Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials and personnel destroyed on Wednesday afternoon hundreds of boxes of fake goods worth at least PHP3 billion inside an accredited warehouse condemnation facility along Narra Road in Barangay San Antonio in this city.
BOC Auction and Cargo Disposal Division and Enforcement and Security Services (ESS), together with the authentic product brand representatives, led the destruction of the counterfeit goods inside the warehouse owned by Tritek Reverse Logistics Corp.
Mia Leaño, the Auction and Cargo disposal division head led Customs personnel in destroying the bogus products while other BOC officials destroyed the labeling machine for the fake brands with the use of a sledge hammer.
“These fake products continue to undermine the legitimate brand owners in the country that are greatly affected by the proliferation of fake items,” Leaño said.
In violation of the country’s Intellectual Property Code, the assorted goods such as lotions, perfumes, shampoos, makeup, lipstick and a labeling machine bearing the popular brand names Gio Armani, Dior, Olay, Nivea, Cetaphil, and other well-known brands were either crushed or shredded while other containers of the counterfeit items were emptied and dumped into receptacles.
“Our crackdown against fake products is going well. However, the public must be made aware that continued patronage and exposure to counterfeit items pose health risks to the user. The items were destroyed today bears the same brand but the quality of the materials or chemicals used are different,” Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said in a statement to the press.
The fake goods were among those intercepted during a warehouse raid in November 2017 at Unit 8-1, 10-A, 10-B, Vicente Tower, 1275 Dagupan Street, Tondo, Manila by agents of the ESS.
“These are substandard products and did not undergo quality control and safety inspection,” Lapeña added.
The counterfeit goods were seized on Feb. 22 and consequently forfeited on June 27 this year by the Office of the District Collector of the Port of Manila.
Customs officials said the importation of fake goods is prohibited under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) in relation to Section 166 of Republic Act 8293 (Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines).
CMTA provides that all prohibited goods like counterfeit goods shall be destroyed. (Robert Maico/PNA)
