The Bureau of Customs has seized P63 million worth of smuggled frozen food from four containers that arrived at the Manila International Container Port from Hong Kong and China.

Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said in a statement Monday that the seizure followed the receipt of an intelligence report about the two containers from Hong Kong and two from China declared to contain thousands of kilos of prawn balls.

"But in reality, these four containers contained other frozen food that the consignees did not declare in their manifests," Ruiz said, thanking customs personnel for their relentless pursuit of smugglers.

In a recent guesting on Daily Tribune's digital show Straight Talk, Ruiz vowed to run after smugglers who deprive the government of revenues from taxable goods and upend local producers.

"We are simply complying with the directive of our President to continue our drive against the smuggling of agricultural products and protecting our markets and the prices of our products," Ruiz added.

Meanwhile, Customs Deputy Commissioner Juvymax Uy reported that the agency issued two Alert Orders on 17 November against Victory JM Enterprise OPC, the importer/exporter of the two containers from Hong Kong, each with a declared 25,000 kilos of frozen prawn balls.

Upon inspection, the first container was found to contain frozen tofu, chicken paws and boneless beef, while the second container had frozen tofu, Vietnamese suckling pig and bean curds.

Two other AOs against the containers from China were issued on 18 November. They were declared to have frozen prawn balls, but actually had frozen fish tofu and frozen beef cheek meat.

Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service Director Jeoffrey Tacio gave credit to the team that inspected the containers, lauding their commitment to stop smuggling.

"We have been working double time since receiving the information about these containers. With prices of our goods going up, it is all the more important that we do our best to protect the borders and make sure that none of these smuggled products enter our markets," he said.

The consignee will face charges of violating Sec. 1400 (misdeclaration in goods declaration) in relation to Sec. 1113 (property subject to seizure and forfeiture) of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.