Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Friday underscored the importance of police-led anti-smuggling operations, citing the limited manpower of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) in securing the country’s borders against contraband.

Remulla said the BoC has only about 5,000 personnel, with fewer than 1,000 agents directly involved in enforcement, compared with the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) more than 230,000 personnel who can be tapped for anti-smuggling efforts.

“The BoC has a little over 5,000 employees, and their agents are only in the hundreds, fewer than 1,000. The same goes for the BIR. The PNP has 230,000 personnel, so they will take the lead here, especially in investigation and apprehension,” Remulla said.

He cited the discovery of an illegal cigarette factory in Mexico, Pampanga, capable of producing up to P150 million worth of cigarettes daily. The facility was uncovered by the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) while probing the interception of smuggled cigarettes in Mabini, Batangas, in December last year.

On 31 December, the PNP’s Highway Patrol Group (HPG) seized P1.1 billion worth of smuggled cigarettes in Batangas City during a follow-up operation related to a stolen vehicle. The following day, HPG operatives confiscated another P1.5 billion worth of smuggled cigarettes in Malabon.

Late last month, HPG personnel also seized more than P220 million worth of Apple products with questionable documents in Quezon City. Both the CIDG and HPG have been involved in several other anti-smuggling operations resulting in the confiscation of goods worth millions of pesos in recent weeks.