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MOTOR-vehicle smuggling in the country has moved to
other ports because of the successful antismuggling
operations of the Bureau of Customs’ Intelligence and
Enforcement Group (BOC-IEG) in Cebu.
In a
report to Customs Deputy Commissioner and IEG head Celso
Templo, the BOC-IEG and the Customs Intelligence and
Investigation Service in Cebu said they have managed to
prevent the entry of smuggled high-end luxury vehicles
in the region that has been tagged as one of the
smuggling hot spots in the country.
Instead,
big-time smuggling syndicates of motor vehicles have
shifted operations to other ports like General Santos
City, Port Irene in Cagayan Valley, Port of Davao, San
Fernando in La Union, Cagayan de Oro and even Port of
Manila and the Manila International Container Port and
Subic and Clark Free Ports, the offices reported.
Suspicion on the alleged rampant vehicle smuggling
activities in Cebu surfaced after district agencies of
the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in four key cities
in Cebu were found to have registered some 7,000
smuggled luxury vehicles.
Templo
explained that the increase in the number of registered
imported vehicles in the cities of Lapu-Lapu, Cebu,
Toledo and Mandaue “was brought about by rampant
vehicle-smuggling activities.”
It was
learned the smuggling syndicates were forced to find
other entry points in the country because of the serious
antismuggling campaign being implemented by the BOC in
Cebu.
“Since
the intensified antismuggling campaign in Cebu was
launched, not a single high-end luxury vehicle as well
as secondhand car arrived at the Port of Cebu,” the
report said.
Completely built cars and even complete-knock-down
vehicles are being unloaded in these ports and the
importation papers were brought to LTO agencies in
Cebu’s key cities for registration using bogus documents
like fake customs certificates of payment, fake LTO
certificates of stock report, bills of lading and other
required papers, the report added.
Syndicates in connivance with unscrupulous LTO personnel
in Lapu-Lapu City and the cities of Toledo, Cebu and
Mandaue were the ones responsible for the issuance of
registration certificates and official receipts of
smuggled vehicles, which is a major requirement in
vehicle registration.
The BOC,
upon orders from the President, has intensified the
antismuggling campaign in Cebu late last year in the
wake of reports that hundreds of luxury vehicles and
sport utility vehicles were being smuggled through the
Port of Cebu. |
