BOC resists pressure to release seized toothpaste

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) resisted yesterday pressures from certain quarters to release the shipment of fake Colgate toothpaste from China confiscated on Tuesday for violating the international property right (IPR).

Customs deputy commissioner Ray Allas, chief of the BoC’s IPR task force, disclosed to the STAR that attempts have been made to release the shipment of three container vans of fake Colgate toothpaste held under their custody.

"I told them (the persons interceding for the release of the three container vans) that there is no way that the illegal shipment could be released without undermining the bureau’s campaign against intellectual piracy," Allas said.

He, however, did not identify the persons who tried to intercede for the release of the illegal shipment.

Allas said that the shipment of fake Colgate toothpaste with an estimated value of P2 million would be burned and dumped in a landfill at the Manila International Container Port where it was shipped on board a vessel that originated from China.

The apprehension of the illegal shipment was the first major seizure by the bureau of cargoes against IPR violators. The bureau’s IPR task force was set up late last year on orders of BoC commissioner Antonio Bernardo on the urging of the US government to prevent the entry of goods into the country that violate the IPR laws.

"This is the first major apprehension of a shipment involving violations of the IPR," Allas said. He also added that the bureau has been seizing shipment of fake VCDs and CDs that arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.