.4-M bangus fry seized at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines - Customs officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) confiscated around 450,000 live milkfish (bangus) fry that arrived from Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia on three different airlines Saturday afternoon.

Customs police chief Marlon Alameda said they received a tip that bangus fry will arrive Saturday from Indonesia via Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia and will be brought to Pair Cargo and Miascor warehouses. They alerted officials from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), he said.

Alameda said they seized 210 boxes from the two warehouses. Each box contained 10 plastic bags with 1,000 to 1,500 fish fry. The whole shipment is valued at P2.5 million, he said.

He and BFAR-NAIA head Ben Curativo said the shippers and consignees, who are still unknown, violated Section 2530 (f) of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines as amended by the Fisheries Code of 1998.

Lt. Reggie Tuason told The STAR that “the country is running out of milkfish fry so importers are trying to import even without certification from BFAR and using spurious documents, hoping they can do it here.”