Ten container vans of illegally imported agricultural products, hardware materials and used clothing worth Php23.1 million were recently seized by Bureau of Customs Port of Manila (BOC-POM) operatives for violation of certain provisions of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP), Department of Agriculture (DA) and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) Memorandum and Administrative Orders.

According to Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, eight of the 10 forty-footer container vans that came from Pakistan , Hong Kong and China were consigned to EJ Alejandro Import and Export, a trading company based in Navotas City and owned by Emilio Jacinto Alejandro.

Upon 100 % examination of Alejandro’s eight (8) forty footer container vans shipment, two (2) turned out to contain carrots, instead of its declared preserved foods. Another two (2) containers were discovered to have potatoes, instead of its declared cold oriental noodles, one (1) container turned out to contain fish, instead of its declared preserved food, one (1) container was stuffed with chicken leg, instead of preserved food as declared and two (2) containers turned out to contain used clothing instead of its declared kitchen ware. Alejandro’s shipment which arrived in December 2011 was valued at Php22 million with a dutiable amount of Php7 million.

“The Bureau of Customs will never allow importers to defraud the government by not paying the right duties and taxes for their shipments. Moreover, we will never allow illegally imported food products, not certified safe for human consumption by appropriate agencies, to enter the country,” Biazon said, adding that, “This is not just for the sake of collecting the right revenues for the government, but more importantly, this is for the sake of the Filipinos” safety against unsafe illegally imported food products.”

Together with Alejandro’s shipment, another two (2) forty container vans of hardware materials like manhole, turnbuckle, bending tools and door sets among others that were misdeclared as poultry keeping materials were also seized at the POM.

Consigned to Merchandise Consumer Resources Unlimited, Inc., the hardware shipment which came from Malaysia in January 2012 was estimated to be worth Php1.1 million with an estimated dutiable amount of Php310,000.00

According to POM District Collector Rogel Gatchalian, had the importers of these aforementioned shipments only paid their duties, they could not have lost their goods, while the government should have earned Php7.3 million in duties.

“Contrary to what others might think that smuggling is a lucrative business, once you’re caught, you will not only be losing the business, but most importantly, they will be in a big legal problem,” Gatchalian said.

Collector Gatchalian also stressed that the licensed customs broker for both the EJ Alejandro Import and Export and Merchandise Consumer Resources Unlimited Inc. was a certain Gonzalo S. Planas.

“Per the Commissionerâ’s order, we shall facilitate the immediate endorsement of the details of these seizures to the Run-After-The-Smugglers (RATS) Program for the filing of appropriate charges with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Gatchalian stressed.