Authorities seized more than P10 billion worth of smuggle cigarettes following intensified operations, Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno said on Sunday.

Nepomuceno, however, said that this amount is the combined market value of the overall seizure of illegal cigarettes.

"That is no joke. That is a massive business. Even if you catch them one after another, if they manage to slip through just once, they will recover all their losses," Nepomuceno said in a radio interview.

"In that amount of over P10 billion, what actually entered through international ports has already been included. That is what the BOC is intercepting. However, when they were being caught at the international ports, they diverted around October last year and started manufacturing locally instead. That is also illegal.... But we also had them caught, and it was reported, those illegal factories in parts of Tarlac and Pampanga," the BOC chief added.

According to the BOC, smugglers have been using "backdoors" to bring illicit cigarettes to the country.

"Now, they have increased their entry using backdoors. Those are Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and they have also moved towards parts of Mindoro, Batangas, all the way to Navotas and Tondo," Nepomuceno said.

Earlier, around P234.3 million worth of alleged smuggled foreign-brand cigarettes were seized by the authorities in the waters off Lutangan Island in Olutangan, Zamboanga Sibugay.

In an effort to further strengthen crackdown against illicit activities, the BOC has been working closely with the Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Navy in intercepting smugglers using backdoors.