Recently, the Philippine Customs (BOC) seized two batches of unauthorized sugar and a batch of falsely declared cigarettes at the Port of Manila, with a total value exceeding 90 million pesos.

On May 29th, senior officials from the Customs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA), the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, and the POM regional Office jointly led and participated in the inspection of the intercepted goods.

The first batch of goods was inspected on May 23rd, involving two 20-foot container trucks from Thailand, carrying 1,000 bags of refined sugar. Although the consignee has been registered with the State Taxation Administration, this batch of goods lacks the necessary import distribution and customs clearance procedures, and therefore has not been permitted.

The customs imposed a seizure and detention order (WSD) on this batch of goods for violating the relevant provisions of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA). Customs officials said that this batch of goods violated the import regulations of controlled goods.

In another operation, the customs inspected two other 20-foot containers at Warehouse 3 of POM, which have been declared abandoned. The container was labeled "Sweet Mixed Powder" on the outside, but it contained 1,040 bags of sugar inside. Due to demurrage fees and the lack of documents, the declaring importer waived the ownership.

BOC is awaiting laboratory confirmation from the National Sugar Administration to determine the product's ingredients and possible violations. The total value of these two batches of sugar is estimated to be 9 million pesos.

During the same inspection campaign, officials also discovered a 40-foot container declared as "fabric", which actually contained 1,046 cases or 52,300 packs of cigarettes. This batch of contraband worth 81.065 million pesos lacks relevant import documents, violating the provisions of the Tobacco Trade Administration Act and the regulations of the National Tobacco Administration.