Alert on for 80 container vans with smuggled coins

About 80 container vans, suspected to be carrying Philippine coins to be exported to two Asian countries, were placed on hold by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials.

BoC-Manila International Container Port (MICP) deputy collector for operations James Enriquez ordered the Customs X-ray Inspection Project field officer to scan the shipments suspected to have been misdeclared as “scrap metal” and “non ferrous metal.”

The bureau examiners were asked to witness the examination and to subject the shipment for spot-checking. The shipments were bound for Malaysia and Korea.

Some of the shipments were owned by South East Metal Recycling Inc., with office address at 20 6D Aquino Street, Caloocan City; and Sinar Metal Trading located along Padre Rada Street, Tondo, Manila.

Documents showed the shipment of Sinar was consigned to Sangil Corp. Ltd. in Ro Jung Gu, Daegu, Korea, and Ye Chiu Metal Smelting Berhad, PLP 474, JL Keluli, Pasir Gudang Johor, Malaysia.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales earlier ordered a tighter watch on attempts to ship out Philippine coins to other Asian countries. He issued a memorandum to Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang, chief of the BoC X-ray Inspection Project, and all district collectors to scrutinize all export shipments declared as scrap metals, ores and minerals.

All X-ray field officers, on the other hand, were instructed to conduct a profiling of importers and exporters of these articles.

Late last month, joint elements of the BoC, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) discovered P3 million worth of P1 coins inside a 40-foot container van that was about to be shipped to Korea.

The alleged illegal shipment reportedly contained 17.9 tons of P1 coins. It was found inside a 40-footer container van located inside a warehouse of the Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) at South Harbor.            – Evelyn Macairan