A complaint from a footwear and apparel manufacturing company led to the discovery of thousands of sacks of goods imitating popular clothing brands in five warehouses in Binondo, Manila, and Paranaque.
Several clothes bearing the brand names of Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Polo Ralph Lauren, Supreme, Roxy, Marvel, Hello Kitty, Billabong, among others worth P850 million were found inside the warehouses during a raid Thursday.
According to Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, three warehouses in Binondo, Manila and two warehouses in Sucat, Paranaque, were raided by customs agents.
“Based on the initial inspection conducted by customs agents, the three warehouse units (in Binondo) contain roughly 2,500 sacks of wearing apparel with an estimated value of P700 million,” Guerrero said.
“The operation stemmed from the complaint we received from the brand representative of Nike in the Philippines that there are building units in Binondo containing fake goods. This prompted our intelligence team to conduct an investigation on the subject warehouse units,” Guerrero added.
Meanwhile, various fake items of brands Nike, Adidas, Red Bull, Tsing Tao, HP, Heineken, Oakley, Under Armour, Champion, Tribal, Bench, Peppa Pig, Disney-Minions, Disney-Minnie Mouse, Cetaphil, Spiderman, Oneal, and Jaguar valued at P150 million were discovered in the two warehouses located at Meliton Espiritu Street, Steelhauz Compound in Sucat, Parañaque City.
All raided warehouses, the commissioner said, had been put under Customs control for safekeeping, pending seizure and forfeiture proceedings for violation of the Customs laws and the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines. (Betheena Kae Unite)