Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon today led the filing of smuggling charges at the Department of Justice (DOJ) against traders Rady Garbosa and Carlos R. Uy for attempting to smuggle Php19 million worth of onions and garlic from China, on two different occasions, without the required government permits.

According to Biazon, Binondo based Rady Garbosa, who owns RSG Marketing is being charged for violation of Sections 101 and 3601 of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) and Section 2, Rule II of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Quarantine Administrative Order No. 1 when he misdeclared his Php10 million worth of onions as fresh pears. Onion importation in the country is regulated to protect the interest of local onion raisers.  Garbosa’s five (5) forty-footer container vans shipment of onions arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) on August 2, 2012.

On the other hand, Laguna based Carlos Uy who own Aqua Blue Marine Trading is also being charged for the same violations with Garbosa when he tried to illegally bring into the country  four (4) forty-footer container vans of garlic worth Php9 million from China. Uy’s shipment of hot garlic arrived at the Port of Manila (POM) on June 27, 2012.

“Our formal filing of smuggling cases against Garbosa and Uy today is just the start of an even more focused and determined initiative to get convictions on these two cases,” Biazon said.

“We have to jail smugglers, if we want to put a stop to smuggling, especially those who indulge in agricultural products smuggling as it is not only killing the local onion industry, it is virtually killing the families of onion raisers,” Biazon added.

Uy’s garlic shipment was seized by virtue of a Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) issued by POM District Collector Rogel Gatchalian after Deputy Commissioner Horacio Suansing’s issuance of an Alert Order on said shipment led to the discovery of the illegal garlic importation.

On the other hand, Garbosa’s shipment was seized by the BOC after its hot onions were discovered during the container vans’ 100% examination by virtue of an Alert Order issued by Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Group Danilo Lim.

For his part, Deputy Commissioner for Revenue Collection and Monitoring Group (RCMG) and Run-After-The-Smugglers (RATS) head Peter Manzano said, his lawyers are going to aggressively pursue the cases they have filed against Garbosa and Uy.

“We will not waver in our drive to get more convictions as this, we believe, shall be the strongest deterrent to smuggling,” the RATS head said. RATS is the BOC unit tasked to file cases against smugglers.

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