The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has apprehended 57 containers laden with smuggled sugar from Thailand worth more than P85 million, the biggest seizure so far this year by government in terms of volume and value.
Intelligence Group (IG) deputy commissioner Jessie Dellosa and sugar industry representatives on August 27 led public viewing of the seized merchandise that arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in several batches between last month and last week.
Records of the shipment identified the consignee as Global Classe Marketing and Comm. Corporation with business address along FB Harrison St., Pasay City while the customs broker who tried to facilitate its release from BOC was identified as Rolando Crave.
Dellosa said Global Classe and Crave declared the sugar as “general merchandise” consisting of various kitchen utensils such as spoon, fork, chopping board and cutlery and various school and office supplies. The shipment violates Section 2503 in relation to Section 2530 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines and is subject to automatic confiscation for lack of the required import permit from the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
Although the shipments were declared to have been shipped on separate occasions from Hong Kong, the bags containing the highly refined sugar all came from Thailand. “This is how they tried to evade detection, by first transporting the sugar to another port like Hong Kong and then loading them to another vessel bound for the Philippines,” Dellosa said in a statement.
So far, the IG has apprehended a total of 189 containers of smuggled sugar at the MICP, Port of Cebu and at the Port of Cagayan de Oro with an aggregate value of more than P284 million.
Due to the series of apprehensions at MICP, Dellosa noted smugglers appear to have “chosen” the premier Manila port as their “favorite port” in shipping their illegal cargoes to the country.
