BOC Foils Php6 Million DVD Smuggling Try
CEBU CITY – The Bureau of Customs (BOC) unrelenting campaign to curb smuggling has once again caused the seizure of 700,000 pieces of blank Digital Video Disks (DVD) worth Php6 million in this Southern port by alert personnel of the BOC Cebu X-Ray Inspection Project (XIP).
According to Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, the attempt to illegally slip the 20 footer container van filled with DVDs which arrived at the Port of Cebu on March 9, 2012 was foiled when, upon inspection and verification of the documents presented by its consignee ZAKRHIS General Merchandise of Mabolo, Cebu to the BOC-XIP officials, it was found to be fake.
“If smugglers think that some out-ports of the Bureau of Customs are lax, they are definitely wrong. All BOC regulated ports in the country are on a 24/7 alert mode for suspicious shipments,” Biazon said.
“Moreover, we will not hesitate to confiscate any illegal shipment and prosecute all those involved in it, no matter how well connected they are with powerful government officials and politicians,” Biazon stressed.
For her part, BOC-XIP national head lawyer Lourdes Mangaoang said, the importation of DVDs needs the approval of the Optical Media Board. “In the case of the ZAKHRIS shipment, the import permit they presented to the Bureau of Customs was a fake one, as certified by OMB Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ronnie Ricketts,” Mangaoang said.
On the other hand, BOC-Cebu District Collector Ronnie Silvestre, the BOC –Cebu top official who issued the Alert Order on the DVD shipment aired a stern warning not to use his port for smuggling activities.
“While we will be very helpful and accommodating to good standing importers and traders who would like to make Cebu the port of entry for their cargoes, we will, however, be unfriendly to smugglers,” Silvestre said.
