Misdeclared cell phones seized at NAIA

Alert Customs agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) seized two boxes containing 2,500 high-end cellular phone units misdeclared as electronics goods.

Ricardo Belmonte, BOC-NAIA district collector, said the boxes of the supposed electronics goods, weighing 457 kilos, were located at an export warehouse and about to be shipped to a consignee in Singapore.

However, Special Agent 1 Judy Teaño, BOC Enforcement Security Service (ESS) officer-in-charge at the PairCargo warehouse, received a tip that the boxes actually contained high-end cell phones.

Acting on the information, Teaño, along with NAIA Customs police commander Major Haydee Posadas, deputy commander Capt. Mariano Biteng, and BOC-ESS assistant operations chief Special Agent I Regino Tuason and their men swooped down on the warehouse and issued a hold order on the shipment.

The shipment, Tuason said, is now stored at the BOC Collectors Corral for safekeeping. — Rainier Allan Ronda