Smuggled rice seized in Cebu

PHOTO from CDN/Junjie Mendoza

CEBU CITY – At least P80 million worth of goods made up mostly of smuggled rice inside 71 shipping containers were confiscated on Monday by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at the Port of Cebu.

According to the Bureau of Customs, the smuggled rice from China that were found inside the confiscated shipping containers had an estimated worth of P83.3 million.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña, who lead the opening of the containers on Monday at the Cebu port, said that they received a report that supposedly said that there were containers in Cebu port that were misdeclared.

“We received reports from Manila that the shipment supposedly declared as tiles but initial X-ray inspection showed that the containers actually held rice,” said Lapena, who received the information about the misdeclared goods on December 7.

“Of course may mga containers na may tiles talaga na totoo, but mas maraming misdeclared as rice (Of course, there are containers that contain tiles but most of what’s inside the containers are misdeclared as rice),” Lapeña said.