OVER a kilo of various flower seeds from Indonesia hidden inside a pair of sport shoes has been intercepted by the personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Cebu-Subport of Mactan.
Forty-one sachets of flower seeds were seized on Thursday, March 17, 2022, as these were not declared and not covered with sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances from the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).
Mactan Port Collector Gerardo A. Campo has reminded the public that importation of plants and plant products is allowed if covered with import clearance from the BPI.
“Do not resort to misdeclaration and concealment to effect the release of your importation,” he said in a press statement on Monday, March 21.
The latest seizure is in line with the directive of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero to continuously boost surveillance and monitoring efforts against the proliferation of illegal trade of wildlife species to protect the environment and preserve biodiversity, according to the BOC Cebu-Subport of Mactan.
Flagged package
The BOC Cebu said the package, declared to only contain sport shoes, was "flagged down by the X-Ray Inspection Project (XIP) Team after non-intrusive inspection yielded suspicious scanning images."
Assigned Customs Examiner Pablito B. Geraldez and representatives from XIP Team, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, Enforcement and Security Service, DHL Cebu, BPI, and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, examined the package and found the 41 sachets of flower seeds.
District Collector Charlito Martin R. Mendoza immediately issued a Warrant of Seizure and Detention after finding probable cause for deliberate misdeclaration, a violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and the BPI Quarantine Administrative Order No. 2, series of 2008.
The BOC Cebu-Subport of Mactan did not identify in its press release the consignee of the package. (KAL)