THE Bureau of Customs-Manila International Container Port (BOC-MICP) seized 76 containers of smuggled sugar with an estimated value of P228 million in a physical inspection conducted on Oct. 17.
The containers carrying 1,906 metric tons of cane refined sugar from Thailand arrived on Sept. 24.
On Oct. 4, the MICP Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) requested the issuance of an Alert Order against the shipment based on information that the consignee is fictitious and that the importation was not covered by an import clearance from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
Based on CIIS report, a request for amendment of the manifest was received on Oct. 10, notably only after a request for issuance of an alert order was made, an attempt to cure the defect that the consignee appearing on the submitted inward foreign manifest is a fictitious company in the Philippines.
Further, no address and contact details were indicated in the documents submitted in requesting for the amendment of consignee.
A Warrant of Seizure and Detention was issued against the shipment for lack of Clearance for the Release of Imported Sugar issued by the SRA, violating Sections 117 and 1113 of Republic Act No. 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
The operation is part of the marching orders of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz to stop all forms of smuggling and other customs fraud in the country.
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