BOC-Port of Aparri’s Arienito M. Antonio sprays liquid on tobacco prior to incineration.
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Untaxed goods valued at some P1.3 billion were destroyed by the Bureau of Customs at a waste disposal plant in Porac, Pampanga Monday.
The contraband was believed to have been sneaked into the country by a syndicate involved in the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit cigarettes across a large swathe of Luzon.
“This is the biggest seizure made by our office, specifically BOC-Port of Aparri, for this year so far,” said supervising Customs operations officer Arienito M. Antonio during the ceremonial condemnation of the smuggled goods.
The contraband seized in a raid of a warehouse owned by Chinese businessman Peter Hou in Barangay Victoria, Alicia, Isabela last month included thousands of cases of assorted filter paper, hundreds of kilos of powdered tobacco leaves, filters, wrappers, hundreds of cases of gold and white tear tapes, and different reams of cigarettes including Marlboro (blue), Fortune (Blue), Fort, Mighty, and Astro.
Also found in the warehouse were counterfeit tax stamps of the Bureau of International Revenue amounting to P5.5 million and another P6–million worth of foreign tax stamps.
“Counterfeit cigarettes deprived the government of billions of pesos in terms of tax and revenues,” said Antonio as he vowed to strengthen the campaign against smuggling in the Port of Aparri.
He said the smuggled items, transported from Isabela to Pampanga, were subjected for condemnation at Green Leaf 88, the only waste disposal facility accredited by the BOC and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources because of its state-of-the-art machineries in handling sensitive wastes.
Green Leaf 88 plant supervisor Rommel Cordova said it will take them four to five days of 24-hour operation to completely destroy such huge quantity of contraband.
He explained that Green Leaf 88 is equipped with a large shredding machine, cutter, and water basins where tobacco leaf is left to decay using other non-harmful components.
“Green Leaf 88 is using natural way of disposing wastes and other condemned products, we are the only disposal facility in Central Luzon that has modern equipment,” he told reporters on the sideline of destruction activities.
