40-foot vans with Peking ducks, pigeons seized

MANILA -- The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has seized two 40-footer state reefer vans filled with P40-million worth of illegally imported Peking ducks and pigeons from China at the Port of Manila (POM), an official said on Thursday.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon said that local importer HEXA Trading tried to avoid the required import permit from the Department of Agriculture (DA) for its two reefer loads of frozen Peking ducks and pigeons by declaring its hot shipment as frozen mackerel.

"The importer of these Peking ducks and pigeons may have underestimated the capabilities of our x-ray machines and thought that they would be able to do away with their illegal trade by concealing their hot shipment behind the pile of boxes of frozen mackerel inside the reefer vans," Biazon said.

"This will definitely be a costly lesson for HEXA Trading as not only will the BOC confiscate their two reefer vans of Peking ducks and pigeons, but we will also sue the officials of this company for violations of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP)," he added.

The BOC is currently on an over-drive mode in its campaign against smuggling with the on-set of the "ber" months. Moreover, it is also aggressively pursuing the cases against violators of the TCCP.

BOC's X-Ray Inspection Project (XIP) lawyer Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang said that in compliance with Biazon's instruction to subject all reefer vans to x-ray scanning, the two reefer vans of HEXA Trading, which arrived at the POM on October 15, 2012, were scanned by her operatives on October 16, 2012.

"When the two containers made its pass on our x-ray scanners, suspicious images appeared on our monitors prompting us to recommend to Commissioner Biazon for the issuance of the corresponding Alert Orders. And upon full inspection of the two reefer vans, we discovered the concealed Peking ducks and pigeons in the two vans," Mangaoang said.

"With the way the Peking ducks and pigeons were stuffed, the intention to illegally sneak these frozen food products into the country is obvious. Had it not been for our high-tech x-ray machines, HEXA Trading may have succeeded in its smuggling attempt," she added. (SDR/Sunnex)