Smuggled frozen food seized

A haul of frozen food amounting to P63 million in market value, including steaks perfect for Yuletide revelries, were seized by operatives of the Philippine Coast Guard before it reached consumers, a report said on Monday.

According to the BOC, smuggled frozen foods contained in several containers that arrived from Hong Kong and China at the Manila International Container Port, putting consignees in violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-MICP received derogatory information about two containers from Hong Kong and two containers from China declared to have thousands of kilograms of frozen prawn balls.

Each of these four containers is said to have an estimated P15,750,000 worth of suspected misdeclared goods.

"But in reality, these four containers contained other frozen food that the consignees did not declare in their manifest. I have personally expressed my confidence to the team, and thanked them for their relentless pursuit of these smugglers," Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said.

"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," he added.

Customs Deputy Commissioner retired Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy reported that the agency issued two Alert Orders (AOs) on November 17, 2022 against Victory JM Enterprise OPC, the imported/exporter of two containers from Hong Kong, each with declared 25,000 kilograms of frozen prawn balls.

But upon inspection, the first container had frozen tofu, chicken paws, and boneless beef, while the second container also had frozen tofu, Vietnamese suckling pig, and beancurd skin.

Two other AOs against two containers from China were issued on November 18, 2022.

These two containers were declared to have 2,900CT and 2,905CT of frozen prawn balls, respectively, but actually had frozen fish tofu and frozen beef cheek meat.