7 charged for smuggling P18-M Peking duck, agricultural products

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) filed charges against five traders and two licensed brokers for allegedly smuggling a total of P18 million worth of Peking duck and agricultural products into the country.

RSG marketing owner Rady Garbosa, import manager Adonis Andilab and broker Jucylita Garcia; Reachable Enterprises owner Jaime Martinez and broker Janet Cariga; and Estelito Mallari and Gary Madugnon, consignee and shipper of a shipment from Cagayan de Oro City were charged before the Department of Justice.

Last May, Garbosa, Andilab and Garcia reportedly smuggled P8 million worth of Peking ducks from Hong Kong.

BOC Commissioner Rufino Biazon said “the public health is at stake here, specially with the unlawful importation of Peking duck, which is known as a carrier of the deadly avian flu virus.”

Two months later, Garbosa allegedly imported P2 million worth of onions wrongly declared as fresh pears. The shipment was not supported by an import permit from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).

Martinez and Cariga reportedly imported P4 million worth of onions without any permit from the BPI. The onions were declared as umbrellas, office supplies, lamps, and plasticware.

Mallari and Madugnon were the consignee and shipper, respectively, of a shipment of what they declared as locally produced onions from Cagayan de Oro City. The two 40-footer shipping containers turned out to contain P4 million worth of imported onions.

The respondents were charged for violating the Section 3601 if Tariff and Customs Code, department orders of the Department of Agriculture and Article 172 of the Revised Penal Code.