BOC seizes P30 million smuggled produce, poultry

MANILA, Philippines — Bureau of Customs (BOC) agents stopped the entry of P30 million worth of allegedly smuggled agricultural and poultry products at the Manila International Container Port, officials said yesterday.

The bureau received information that the contents of five 40-footer containers from China consigned to Lycan Consumer Goods Trading were misdeclared, prompting the physical examination of the shipment, according to BOC Deputy Commissioner for intelligence Raniel Ramiro.

District collector Romeo Allan Rosales immediately issued pre-lodgement control orders in a bid to examine the shipment, which was found to be produce and frozen poultry products, contrary to its declaration of hotpot balls, Ramiro said.

BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said the bureau’s employees are ordered “not to delay the issuance of needed documents” for faster operations against smugglers.

Ramiro and Guerrero were named in a report submitted to the office of former senator Vicente Sotto as among the alleged protectors of agricultural smugglers along with several other BOC officials. Both have denied the allegations hurled against them.