Countless Filipino lives may have been saved from the recent seizure of over Php400 million worth of illegally imported fake medicines, cell phone batteries and cell phone chargers among others, by operatives of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Intellectual Property Rights Division (IPRD), an operating unit of the BOC’s Intelligence Group (IG) under Deputy Commissioner Danilo Lim, which arrived at the Port of Manila from China via Hong Kong late last year.
The contraband inside the two 40-foot container vans that were consigned to Imax Harbor were declared as plastic wares. However, upon physical examination by the Bureau’s IPRD operatives, the container van turned out to contain counterfeit medicines among other items instead.
Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon said, “we will not allow counterfeit items to enter the local market, especially medicines, if only to protect consumers from the risks of using products that are not certified safe for human consumption by its country of origin or any international quality standard rating agency.”
“And usually, the reason why counterfeit items are sold cheaper than authentic or original ones is that, they are not only made out of sub-standard materials, but most importantly, they are not subjected to tests to determine its safety for human consumption or use,” the Commissioner added.
The seizure of the aforementioned shipment was prompted by Deputy Commissioner Lim’s issuance of the corresponding Alert Orders upon the recommendation of IPRD Chief lawyer Zae Carrie de Guzman.
“I have ordered all operating units under IG to be even more vigilant on suspicious cargoes, especially those that could pose health risks to Filipino consumers like counterfeit medicines,” Lim said, adding that, “We cannot afford to compromise the safety of the Filipinos.”
The smuggled merchandise included 130,000 capsules of counterfeit Tuseran Forte, 55,000 pieces of counter cellular phone batteries, (Nokia, Sony Ericson, Motorola, Samsung) and 9,000 pieces of counterfeit cellular phone chargers.
Other counterfeit items were also found inside the containers, including 720 pieces of Louis Vuitton bags, 180 pieces of Coach bags, 10,000 pieces of Hermes pouch/bag, 180 pieces of Chanel bags, 810 pieces of Gucci bags and 30,000 pieces of wristwatches.
“This is the second biggest apprehension of counterfeit shipments made by the IPRD for the year following the recently conducted raid at the King’s Plaza building in Binondo, Manila which yielded fake luxury branded items with an estimated value of Php700,000 million,” de Guzman said.
Commissioner Biazon has earlier instructed the IPRD under the Intelligence Group to strengthen the enforcement of border control especially with the proliferation of fake/counterfeit medicines that could pose a serious threat to the health of Filipino buyers.
Meanwhile, the Intellectual Property Rights Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL) commended the Customs personnel who conducted the seizure of the counterfeit merchandise. Named in the IPOPHIL commendation were Atty. Zsae Carrie de Guzman (Chief), Atty. Teddy Sandy Raval, Angelito Sablay, Raul Dizon, Jose Thomas Puson, Joel Roca de Guzman, Anuar Adiong Domangcag and Jimmy Regala. The IPOPHIL took cognizance of their outstanding performance in the IPRD when their commitment and unrelenting efforts to curb smuggling resulted in the seizure of over Php6.5 billion worth of smuggled counterfeit item in the years 2010 and 2011.
The BOC was also commended for having contributed the second highest amount of seizure of pirated and counterfeit goods among the law enforcement agencies under the National Committee on Intellectual Property Rights (NCIPR).
