CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY –The Bureau of Customs here confiscated 13 knocked-down mini-vans and a military jeep from Japan.
Oliver Valiente, chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) in Northern Mindanao, on Thursday July 1, estimated the value of the vehicles at P5-million, said vehicles are now stored at the Mindanao Container Terminal in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental.
The shipper declared the goods as “used truck parts” but upon examination by Bureau of Customs personnel, it turned out as disassembled Mazda Scrum mini-vans.
Valiente said the decision of the CIIS to conduct a spot check on cargo was based on the profiling of shipments.
“If I see a red flag, I instantly have the container vans be examined. Most of the spot checks we conducted have resulted to us discovering the shipment as misdeclared items,” he added.
A military jeep, Valiente said, was also thrown in inside the container van, an item that needed a separate special permit.
“The cargo manifest stated used truck parts, but we conducted a spot checking of the shipment, and was able to determine that these were misdeclared items,” he said.
“Our hunch was correct that the shipment contained other items other than what was declared in the documents,” he added.
Prior to the examination, Valiente said he requested lawyer Elvira Cruz, newly installed BOC-10 district collector, to issue an alert order.
He said his office also reported their findings to deputy commissioner Raniel Ramiro and CIIS director Jeoffrey Tacio for appropriate action.
It can be recalled that the BOC-10 has destroyed P21 million worth of imported jeeps on June 18, the day that Cruz was installed as the district collector for the region.
Meanwhile, BOC-10 has announced that for the month of June this year, the agency, now under Cruz’s leadership, was able to collect P2.874 billion, surpassing its P2.815 target.
