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Wednesday, February 25, 2004
Customs seizes P50-M worth of smuggled DVDs
By Fred Roxas
CLARK ECOZONE -- Three tons of digital video discs (DVDs) estimated to cost some P50 million and believed smuggled from Kuala Lumpur were intercepted by Bureau of Customs (BOC) policemen Monday night at the Diosdado Macapagal Airport (DMIA) here.
Customs commissioner Antonio Bernardo motored here Tuesday morning to personally supervise the opening and inspection of the illegal cargo shipped here via a United Parcel Service (UPS) cargo plane.
The shipment was declared as personal effects and consigned to Angel Santos, Rudy Castro and Armando Canlas, all of Mabalacat, Pampanga.
The consignees, suspected by BOC authorities as fictitious names, were represented by unidentified persons who attempted to claim the boxes of DVDs purportedly for delivery to their consigners.
However, Capt. Mariano Biteng, BOC police chief based at Clark Zone, said he became suspicious of the shipped boxes when those claiming them failed to itemize their contents by merely saying that they were "personal belongings".
Biteng immediately relayed his suspicion to commissioner Bernardo who rushed here to investigate.
In an interview, Bernardo said he ordered an investigation on the attempted smuggling, saying that investigators would look into the liability, if any, of UPS for transporting the illegal cargo.
Bernardo said it was the first time UPS was used in the illegal shipment to Clark Ecozone of DVDs, which Customs authorities believe are fake or pirated copies of original video discs.
Bernardo commended the Clark-based customs police for the interception of the illegal cargo.
Biteng said Bernardo ordered the filing in court of charges against the consigners for violation of the Customs and Tariff Code of the Philippines and the Videogram Regulatory Board (VRB) Law.
Clark customs authorities have also started looking into reports that thousands of fake or pirated video discs were being smuggled through Clark by a syndicate operating in Central Luzon and Metro Manila.
(February 25, 2004 issue)
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