CEBU CITY -- The Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu has seized 33 20-footer container vans containing P18 million worth of smuggled rice from Vietnam.
Port of Cebu District Collector Ronnie Silvestre said he will immediately issue a warrant of seizure and detention against the shipment once he receives an official report from the customs inventory team.
The container vans were opened Thursday at the Cebu International Port in the presence of Joey Yuchongco, the director of the customs police who represented Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez.
Alvarez congratulated Silvestre for the seizure.
Yuchongco said the seizure of the smuggled rice shipment is an indication that smuggling will not thrive in Cebu because it can easily be detected.
Alleged consignees
The rice shipments were consigned allegedly to E.P. Precision Cebu Parts, K & A Metal Industries Inc. and Asian Craft (Cebu) Inc. at the West Cebu Industrial Park in Buanoy, Balamban, Cebu; and Kyocera Kinseki (formerly KSS Phils. Inc., based at the New Cebu Township in Naga, Cebu. Both West Cebu Industrial Park and New Cebu Township are under the Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ).
Mamerto Suroysuroy, import-export in-charge of K&A Metal Industries, and Alex Alasco, general manager of Asian Craft, executed separate affidavits dated December 8 denying that their companies have something to do with the rice smuggling.
"The Asian Craft (Cebu) Inc. categorically denies that it is the consignee of the above shipments, as it made no transactions with the consignor, nor made any orders or importation in relation to the above shipments," read Alasco's affidavit.
Companies located in the West Cebu Industrial Park in Balamban are engaged in building sea vessels.
MEZ Administrator Sansaluna Pinagayao issued a certification that E.P. Precision Cebu Parts is not a Philippine Export Zone Authority (Peza)-registered export enterprise.
This means E.P. Precision Cebu Parts may be fictitious.
"This is to certify further that there is no entity in the name of E.P. Precision Cebu Parts that is located at the West Cebu Industrial Park, Buanoy, Balamban, Cebu," the certification further reads. Sansaluna issued the certification based on the alert order signed by Alvarez last Dec. 7.
Yuchongco said the smuggled rice shipments were misdeclared as ceramics, machine regulators and electronic parts. Misdeclaration of goods is a violation of the Tariff and Customs Code.
In the past years, MEZ firms were being used in smuggling of all sorts of items because they are not required to pay duties and taxes for imported goods. Processing of clearances for shipments bound for MEZ is also less tedious. (EOB of Sun.Star Cebu)