Eighteen thousand of reams of smuggled cigarettes worth P20 million were recently destroyed at the Digama Warehouse and Destruction Facility in Barangay Bayabas in Cagayan de Oro City, the Bureau of Customs said Saturday.
The smuggled cigarettes were seized in various ports of entry in Northern Mindanao – Iligan subport, Ozamis subport, and Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT).
According to Port of Cagayan de Oro District Collector John Simon, the shipments entered through consolidated shipments consigned to Black Petal Commercial and to certain Abdul Jamel Caunto Lomodag, Jamalodin Balindong, Abdul Dipatuan, Jamal Elias, Sabri Abbas, Johayne Maruhom, Sihawi Facol, Saphia Lanto, Benjamin Jajalis, and Ricky Ventura.
“The items were illegally imported without pertinent documents and without undergoing customs clearance to evade the payment of duties and taxes,” Simon said.
“We have to make sure that no one would benefit from these illegal items,” he added.
The district collector emphasized that the destruction of the contrabands is pursuant to the instruction of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero to combat smuggling.
He said that the condemnation is a warning to smugglers to stop their illegal activities.
The port has also turned over more than 320 drums of chemicals used in manufacturing shabu to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency three years after these were seized at the Mindanao Container Terminal Sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental for lack of necessary import permit. It came from India and was consigned to Juchem Enterprises. (Betheena Unite)
