Customs seize P50-M hot rice, sugar in Caloocan warehouse

MANILA, Philippines - Customs personnel seized yesterday an estimated P50 million worth of smuggled rice and refined sugar discovered in a raid in a warehouse in Caloocan.

“This is just the tip of an iceberg,” Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez told The STAR.

Alvarez said the smuggled goods were from 50 of the 1,910 shipping containers that went missing during transport from the Port of Manila (POM) and Manila International Container Port (MICP) to the Port of Batangas (POB) earlier this year.

Alvarez and Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service director Jose Yuchongco led their men in raiding the Uni-Nexsus Trading warehouse at C-3 Road, Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan City owned by businessman Sunny Angeles at around 1 p.m.

“If owners of the goods only pay the right taxes with the government, they could still earn much from these but because they did not pay their taxes, we will seize all the goods and it would be a very big lost to their business,” Alvarez said.

He said he ordered Yuchongco to raid the warehouse, after a check of the records showed that some of of the missing shipping containers were stashed there. He said they also found a logbook that showed the containers' numbers.

“These shipments should have been brought to Batangas, instead they were brought here in this warehouse in Caloocan,” Alvarez said.

The contraband will temporarily be stored at the National Food Authority. The bureau will also coordinate with the Sugar Regulatory Administration.

Meanwhile, the House subcommittee on tariff and customs will resume on Monday its hearings on the missing shipping containers.Valenzuela Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo, vice chairman of the panel, said some truck drivers are expected to submit to the panel, headed by Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, affidavits on how they were ordered to move the containers to Caloocan City.

An estimated P3.6 billion in tax revenues may have been lost as the BOC failed to account for 1,910 containers carrying highly-dutiable goods while en route from the POM to the POB.

The panel believed this was a case of massive smuggling that happened between January to May of this year as the BOC was implementing a P450-million computerization program to plug revenue leaks and lessen corruption. – Pete Laude, Evelyn Macairan, Paolo Romero