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BOC-10 vows more crackdowns vs. smuggled goods

By Jigger Jerusalem

August 1, 2022, 6:42 pm

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Bureau of Customs-10 (BOC-10) and agriculture officials vowed to continue to crackdown on imported goods that enter the local ports without proper documentation, customs duty and tariffs, an official said Monday.

Oliver Valiente, chief of BOC Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) in Northern Mindanao, made the assurance following a series of operations last month that resulted in the confiscation of agricultural products flagged by authorities for being wrongfully declared.

“We don’t know why they (smugglers) keep on doing it. But, for our part, we have intensified our campaign against smuggling per the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., especially on agricultural products,” he said.

BOC-10 seized agricultural products, mainly onions, with a market value estimated at PHP66 million, on three separate occasions last month.

The latest shipment to be intercepted consisted of container vans filled with white and red onions at the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) subport in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, on July 28, 2022.

BOC-10 said the items, declared as “soft tortilla wrap,” arrived from China on July 23 and were consigned to the Primex Export and Import Producer. It was valued at PHP18 million.

Lawyer Elvira Cruz, BOC-10 district collector, has reiterated the agency's warning against unscrupulous importers, saying, “smuggling greatly affects locally produced agricultural products since it cannot compete with illegally imported agricultural products.”

Manuel Barradas, regional manager of the Department of Agriculture-10’s Bureau of Plant Industry, said the confiscated goods could not be donated or given out to the public.

The only option is to destroy the products or return them to their origin, which is costly, Barradas added.

Fort her part, Marietta Zamoranos, MCT subport collector, said the confiscated items will be subjected to seizure proceedings and after that, disposition by condemnation.

“Our government does not allow the same to be disposed of by auction, so, eventually, it will be condemned,” she said.

Proper vetting

For the BOC to act on a report that an imported shipment violates Philippine laws, Valiente said they have to carefully validate any information that reaches their office to prevent any untoward consequence.

“We cannot open these container vans all at once because if we do that, it will disrupt the flow of the economy and that would also hamper the operation of the port. We rely on intelligence gathering, tips that are verified and vetted by the CIIS, before taking any action,” he said.

Valiente added there are also times that business operators would feed wrong information to the BOC to put their competitors in a bad light, like alleging that their business rivals are importing contraband. (PNA)

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