Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña checks on the 2008 model Porsche, which was confiscated last week due to having no import permit. The sports car was among the three vehicles presented to the media on Friday. The two others are the misdeclared jet skis. CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
THE two jets skis and a luxury vehicle confiscated at the Cebu port in the last two months will serve as a stern warning to smugglers that the government is serious on its intensified campaign to stop smuggling in the different ports of the country.
“We will continue our intensified campaign against smuggling as well as the checking of shipments arriving from foreign countries,” said Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña, who led Friday’s opening of a 40-foot shipping container at the Cebu port from the United States of America, which yielded two of the smuggled vehicles.
According to the Bureau of Customs in a statement, the shipping container which was declared as containing household items turned out to be carrying the jet skis with an estimated worth of at least P300,000 while last week a second hand sports car — a two-door Porsche, 2008 model, with an estimated worth of between P1 million and P1.5 million was confiscated.
Elvira Cruz, Cebu Customs district collector, said that the two jet skis were confiscated because they were misdeclared.
She added that the 40-foot shipping container was declared to contain household items and not the smuggled aquatic vehicles.
“Upon X-ray, we found the jet skis which were not on the documents,” Cruz said.
The misdeclared shipment which arrived last February 6 was consigned to a company based in Cebu.
While the sports car was properly declared, it didn’t have an import permit when it arrived at the Cebu International Port last week, said Cruz.
The sports car was presented to media yesterday while the shipping container with the jet skis which was already discovered through the X-ray machine was also opened.
A shipment coming from other countries should have an import permit with a corresponding payment amounting to half of the shipment’s amount.
The sports car was consigned to a private individual, said Cruz.
A warrant of seizure and detention has been issued against the shipments.
“There is an investigation going on, and once it is completed, appropriate charges will be filed against the consignees,” said Lapeña.
Cruz said that they were working on filing a case against the consignees, whom they already had identified and were from Cebu.
“We check these people and they exist. We are planning to file a case against them,” Cruz said.
The consignee of the container where the jet skis were stored violated Section 1400 or the misdeclaration, misclassification, and undervalued in goods declaration in relation to Section 1113 or otherwise known as property subject to seizure and forfeiture of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
He said the jet skis would most likely be destroyed but there would also be a chance for them to be put up for auction or to be donated to disaster organizations.
However, the Porsche would be destroyed to comply with President Duterte’s order to destroy smuggled luxury vehicles confiscated in the country’s ports.
Lapeña also said that when the Porsche would be destroyed, it would be the third confiscated luxury vehicle destroyed at the Cebu port.