P266 million worth of smuggled cigarettes shredded

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Tuesday, April 7, destroyed using a mechanized shredder P266 million worth of cigarettes seized in separate operations in the Zamboanga peninsula and nearby Bangsamoro island provinces in the past 24 months.

Radio reports on Tuesday afternoon stated that the contraband was shredded using a machine of a private firm in Barangay Manicahan in Zamboanga City.

The smuggled cigarettes were reportedly turned over to the BOC by police units in Regions 9 and in Basilan, an island province in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, seized in recent anti-smuggling operations assisted by local government units.

A BOC official in Region 9, the district collector Elenita Abaño, was quoted in radio reports as saying that the Indonesian-made cigarettes were destroyed using a mechanized shredder to disprove notions that such contraband that policemen, soldiers and bureau employees confiscate in joint operations are just being kept and, after a period of time, sold to retailers secretly.

In BARMM, police and BOC officials burn in open fields, in the presence of reporters and local executives, smuggled cigarettes seized in anti-smuggling operations in the region. 

A report from the BOC's office in Region 9 stated a total of 5,069 large boxes of cigarettes from Indonesia and 2,620 more smaller reams of such contraband were destroyed using a shredder in Barangay Manicahan in Zamboanga City on Tuesday, in the presence of local executives.