MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Customs on Friday seized P32 million worth of smuggled goods, including used sports utility vehicles and musical instruments, at the Port of Manila.
Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said the smuggled goods were loaded on 18 container vans intercepted by the bureau’s Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-Operations Section (CIIS).
The seized goods which were consigned to fictitious companies included a used Kia Carnival and a Hyundai Starex, as well as musical instruments, ceramic tiles and high-velocity electric fans. They were ordered confiscated for being grossly undervalued, misclassified and misdeclared.
CIIS director Filomeno Vicencio Jr. said that six of the containers were consigned to a company called Cren Trading which was in the news a few months ago after the CIIS foiled its attempt to spirit out of the Port of Davao two high-end vehicles, a Toyota Tundra and a Hummer H2, and two container vans of used clothing or “ukay-ukay”.
Among Cren Trading’s imported commodities that the BOC seized on Friday at the Port of Manila were two containers of used clothing, a container of used home appliances, a container of PVC flooring and two containers of ceramic tiles with combined dutiable value of P6.2 million.
Vicencio said Cren Trading was probably one of the fictitious consignees being used by smuggling syndicates.
CIIS operations chief Eric Alabano said Cren Trading used to have a registered office in Quiapo, Manila.
“However, a recent check showed that another firm now occupies that Quiapo office. We suspect that Cren Trading just changed its business name to circumvent the law,” Albano added.
Dino Tuazon, CIIS Intelligence Division chief, has dispatched a crack intelligence team to look into the past importations of Cren Trading.
“We will leave no stone unturned to ensure that Cren Trading becomes another permanent casualty of our declared war against fictitious, fly-by-night consignees,” he said.
Of the 12 seized containers, five were consigned to Heros Number -1 Surplus Shop, two each to Dae Han Product Line Trading and Kens Unlimited Trading International Corp. and one each to Gawisao Trading, Cassa Trading and Uy Tit & Co. Inc.
Seized from Kens Unlimited were two used Kia Carnival and a Hyundai Starex van worth P2 million and a container full of assorted musical instruments valued at P2 million.
Also seized were 6,483 units of high velocity electric fans worth P5.3 million consigned to Cassa Trading; five 40-footer containers consigned to Heros with P3.5 million worth of used chair and cabinet drawers; two containers of used bed sheets, blankets and used clothing worth P3 million consigned to Dae Han; 688 cartons of yarn worth P5 million consigned to Gawisao Trading; and, 1,970 cartons of post hole digger worth P3 million consigned to Uy Tit.
Alvarez ordered the conduct of an internal investigation to determine if certain customs personnel were involved in the foiled smuggling attempts.
The customs chief also lauded the efforts being exerted by Vicencio and the entire CIIS team to put a stop to smuggling.