Customs bureau chief: Lifetime jail for smugglers

BUREAU of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Rufino Biazon said he wants to see smugglers jailed for life.

In an interview, Biazon said the bureau is after the actual conviction of respondents.

“While we are happy at the rate that we are filing the cases which is every other week, ako ang habol ko talaga yung magkaroon ng conviction,” Biazon said.

“Dahil doon nga natin masasabi na truly effective ang justice system natin simula doon sa paghuli hanggang doon sa kinakasuhan,” he added.

He said that in a period of two weeks, they already seized hundreds of millions of pesos worth of illegally imported goods.

"From agricultural products to electronic gadgets to vehicles and general merchandise, we have apprehended countless illegally imported goods. And we will continue to aggressively pursue the government’s anti-smuggling campaign and drive the axe on smugglers, no matter who their backers are," Biazon said.

The BOC-Davao City impounded three luxury cars worth P3 million and 25 20-footer container vans of float glass worth P25 million.

The 40-footer container vans containing three vehicles -- a 2003 Mini Cooper, 2003 Nissan 350 Z and 2006 Range Rover SUV -- arrived from Long Beach, USA in February 21 and were consigned to a certain Ranths General Merchandise.

Each vehicle is valued at P1 million each.

Operatives of the Enforcement and Security Service-Customs Police Division and Run-After-The-Smugglers (Rats) also seized 25 20-footer container vans containing float glass for misdeclaration, misclassification and undervaluation in January 7 at the Port of Davao.

The float glasses were consigned to a certain CSB Import and Export Containers.

Biazon said the float glass came from China and were already forfeited in favor to the government last January 7, 2013 for violating certain provisions of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines. (Arianne Caryl N. Casas)