MANILA — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday intercepted a 40-foot container loaded with heavy equipment worth more or less PHP30 million at the Port of Manila.
Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said the misdeclared shipment was discovered after conducting 100 percent physical examination, based on a dubious x-ray image, which verified that the shipment contains a brand new payloader and a brand new forklift. It was declared to contain 11 packages of machinery and parts.
The shipment consigned to Green Aphelion Marketing with office address at Unit B 1205 Estrada St., Barangay. 762, Sta. Ana, Manila came from China which arrived on February 27.
Documents showed that the exporter is Xiamen XGMA International Trading and a certain Ferdie Alipio of BF Homes, Paranaque was the customs broker.
“The owner of Green Aphelion and the signing broker could face charges for duping the Bureau by misdeclaring the actual contents of the container,” Lapeña said.
“The accreditation of Green Aphelion Marketing and customs broker Ferdie Alipio with the Bureau of Customs has been revoked by the Account Management Office,” he added.
An alert order was already issued by the Office of the District Collector to prevent the release of the illegal shipment while awaiting the issuance of Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) against Green Aphelion for a violation of Section 1400 and Sec. 1401 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act of 2016 (CMTA).
“We have already discovered the modus operandi of these smugglers which is why the Bureau of Customs has been continuously seizing illegal shipments. I have instructed POM Collector lawyer Erastus Sandino Austria and lawyer Zsae Carrie de Guzman, our X-ray Inspection Project office head to make sure that all our x-rays are functioning and our people are closely checking the images,” the BOC chief said.
At the same time, he noted that they would soon identify the names of customs employees who are conniving with smugglers to weed them out of the bureau. (Ferdinand Patinio/PNA)
