JOLO, Sulu — The Bureau of Customs sub-port of Jolo in Sulu is gearing up to implement appropriate measures on border control to minimize the entry of smuggled goods particularly imported cigarettes to the province.
BoC Sulu sub-port collector Luzviminda Ali disclosed that a more simplified and appropriate measure is being adopted in Jolo to prevent the entry of imported cigarettes to the province from the nearby Sabah, Malaysia.
She added that the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police are now helping her office in their campaign on border control.
"If there are entry or entries of smuggled cigarettes to Jolo, smugglers are doing it very discretely and minimal to avoid detection from authorities who are securing the Sulu province," Ali said.
The port collector said that Joint Task Force Sulu — comprised of 14 military battalions and the provincial police office of the PNP — has vowed to help the sub-port of Jolo in its anti-smuggling drive.
"Actually, my office received some reports that these smugglers are using some of the 58 islands and islets in Sulu to standby until sundown and when darkness comes, they continue to navigate to their destination again," Ali said.
"But our BoC police operatives are helpless since these smugglers are armed up to their teeth," she added.
Ali also admitted that BoC Zamboanga City District Collector Segundo Barte Jr. has constantly reminded her to adopt stricter measures on border control being one of the BoC mandates.
As this develop, Barte said Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz have partially agreed to him to deploy two BoC watercraft to Taganak and another two in Simunul sea lanes in Tawi-Tawi to ensure better border control in the southern part of the country.
The sea lanes of Tawi-Tawi bordering the country and Malaysia is being utilized by smugglers as their entry and exit sea lanes to the Federal State of Sabah in Malaysia, the source state of finished tobacco leave products.
Barte said assured that once the four BoC sea crafts are operational, the entry of smuggled goods to the Zamboanga peninsula and in the Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces will be minimized to a very low percentage.
