CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Customs authorities in Northern Mindanao seized five shipping containers, four of which were consigned to a Cavite-based company, at the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
In a report submitted by the Anti-Smuggling and Anti-Corruption Team, the five containers came from Japan and Korea early this month and their contents were valued at P10 million. The decision to seize them came on Wednesday, said Roswald Joseph Pague, the chief of staff of the Bureau of Customs in Northern Mindanao.
Pague said the vans contained automotive parts but had not been properly declared.
Alvin Enciso, chief of the regional Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, said four of the containers were consigned to Transport Automotive Sales Corp. based in Imus, Cavite.
“When it was learned that the consignee is from Cavite, we got suspicious and upon the alert order of District Collector Ruby Claudia Alameda, we opened the containers,” Enciso told reporters on Thursday.
He said it was puzzling that the containers had to be shipped to the MCT when the nearest port for Cavite was in Manila.
Enciso said the consignee also committed “technical smuggling” because it failed to properly declare the cargoes.
Based on the documents submitted to the bureau, the truck parts were intended to be replacement items but Enciso said these were actually fully assembled truck sections.
He said when the cargo was declared as replacement parts, the consignee should obtain a separate permit from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Import Services. In the case of the consignee, there was none, he said.
The fifth container was consigned to GB Import Export Trading and Baros Kenjiemael Import Export Trading. Jigger Jerusalem, Inquirer Mindanao