BY BETHEENA UNITE
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MORE than a thousand boxes of smuggled cigarettes from Vietnam were uncovered in a shipment of corrugated boxes at the Port of Davao, the Bureau of Customs (BoC) said in a belated report Tuesday.
A total of 1,325 boxes of President brand cigarettes worth P24,843,750 were found mixed in corrugated boxes in an attempt to dupe Customs agents upon X-ray examination last June 3 at the sub-port of Dadiangas, which is under the supervision of the Port of Davao.
It was bared that the smuggled shipment was intercepted through an intelligence report from the Interpol, stating that a shipment by Vengeur International Trading’s importation will be smuggled into the Philippines.
An alert order was then issued against the shipment, which was found to be misdeclared during a 100-percent physical examination at the Philippine Ports Authority container Yard 2.
According to Sub-port of Dadiangas Collector Elenita Abano, the shipment declared to contain 25,000 brand new corrugated boxes had only 1,100 boxes while the rest were boxes of President cigarettes.
The collector said “the shipment did not only violate Customs Administrative Order (CAO) 8-2007 or the ‘Description of Imported Articles in Tariff Terms,’ as implemented in Customs Memorandum Order Number (CMO) 28-2007 or ‘Goods Declared in General Manner to Avoid Proper Classification and Valuation’ but also violated Section 117 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act on import and export of regulated items like cigarettes.
Port of Davao District Collector Erastus Sandino Austria, on the other hand, warned importers and traders not to use the port or any of the district’s supervised sub-ports for illegal activities as he will never tolerate any form of illicit trade in his district.
