DAVAO CITY — The joint operatives from Bureau of Customs (BOC), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday seized an estimated value of P150-million worth of suspected smuggled car parts from China that were repacked as manufactured by Japan-based car companies.
Armed with a Letter of Authority (LOA) and Mission Order (MO) issued by BOC, operatives from the three agencies raided the Maxtro Marketing Corporation and Bestat Auto Parts Corp. located at no. 419 Quirino Highway, Barangay Talipapa, Quezon City.
The auto parts store and five warehouses were said owned by a certain Filipino-Chinese businessman.
At around 12:30 p.m. yesterday, the LOA and MO were served and received by the company’s Human Resources.
During inspection, the raiding team saw five warehouses inside the compound where several and various spare parts, car accessories, truck parts, auto parts, and other items of known Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota and Mitsubishi were stored.
Also found in the compound were several packaging materials imprinted with “Made in Japan”.
According to BOC, repackaging inferior and substandard car parts and making them appear as Japanese brands is deceiving the Filipino buyers. During this time of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic when finances are tight for many Filipinos, they should still be able to purchase items of equal value with their hard-earned money.
The BOC Intelligence Group (IG) warned the public to be wary of such modus operandi being run by some businessmen.
The Bureau of Customs assures that the government is going after these unscrupulous traders to protect the Filipino people.-Newsline
