Customs seizes P37-M smuggled garlic

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday seized P37 million worth of garlic allegedly smuggled from China.

BOC Commissioner John Sevilla said the 125,000 kilograms of illegally imported garlic were placed in five 40-footer shipping containers that arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) on June 12, Independence Day.

The BOC confiscated the shipment after learning that it was not supported by a Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Import Clearance Permit from the Department of Agriculture. This is in violation of Presidential Decree No. 1433, which is Promulgating the Plant Quarantine Law of 1978, Sevilla said.

The BOC’s Enforcement Security Service seized the shipment and issued an alert order.

The tons of smuggled garlic were allegedly sent by Jining Shuntianli Import & Export Co. Ltd. that is based in Shandong, China. The shipment was consigned to Mc Jayson International Trading, the BOC said.

But Mc Jayson’s managing director Lito Caraecle sent a letter to the BOC denying ownership of the smuggled garlic.

The BOC will soon begin forfeiture proceedings against the shipment.

The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) will also take samples of the tons of smuggled garlic to check if these are fit for human consumption. If the shipment passed the Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Test, it could be auctioned off.

The BOC is also investigating 19 40-footer shipping containers of garlic that have been put on hold by MICP district collector Elmir de la Cruz.

The shipping containers, which arrived from May 29 to June 24, have no import entries. They were also flagged by the BPI because they did not have Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Import Clearance Permit.

As for the P30-million garlic seized from the Port of Batangas last month, the BOC and BPI said these passed the Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Test. The agencies are yet to decide how best to deal with the goods whether it would be placed on public bidding, a negotiated bid with the government or donated.

Sevilla denied that BOC’s operations against smuggled garlic triggered the price increase of the commodity in the market.

“We do not believe that the Customs caused the increase in the price of garlic because what we seize we return to the local consumption in the country. So it (seizure) is not a big impact,” he said.

“I think there are other factors that contributed to the high price of garlic,” he added.