Anti-tetanus ampules, cellular phones seized

Customs officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport seized yesterday two shipments of banned anti-tetanus ampules from Pakistan and the latest model of cellular phones from Hong Kong with a combined estimated value of some P15 million.

Customs District Collector Celso Templo and Col. Joey Yuchongco, director of the Customs police, said that the two shipments were declared by their respective consignees as "personal effects" to evade payment of taxes.

Customs Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Jorge Jereos said the volume of the goods declared as "personal effects" by their consignees was highly suspicious prompting Customs authorities at the airport to examine them.

When the cargoes were opened, the hundreds of boxes that arrived from Pakistan on board a Thai Airways flight contained the banned anti-tetanus ampules, so were the boxes of cellphones that came from Hong Kong.

Templo ordered the seizure of the shipments. He identified one of the consignees as a certain Roberto Feliciano and said that the bureau would file smuggling cases against the two consignees the moment they claim the shipments.

Jereos said that the bureau plans to donate the seized anti-tetanus ampules to the Department of Social Welfare and Development after the Bureau of Food and Drugs had determined the drugs as fit for local use.

Jereos also ordered Customs officials at the NAIA to double their monitoring of arriving shipments as he received intelligence reports that smugglers have become active again as the holiday season nears. – Rey Arquiza