Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 14) — Authorities seized last Wednesday 15 shipping containers full of smuggled refined sugar originally misdeclared as silica sand at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), the Bureau of Customs said Friday.
The 15 containers of refined sugar were consigned to Smile Agri Ventures Inc. However, the MICP has not yet determined the exact amount of sugar and its market value, the BOC added.
The agency said authorities are investigating the smuggled sugar and that criminal cases for violations of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) could possibly be filed against the individuals involved.
This came less than a week after the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the Department of Agriculture (DA) approved the importation of another 150,000 metric tons of sugar as a shortage is projected to hit consumers in late August.
READ: SRA approves importation of another 150,000 MT of refined sugar
As of July 13, the DA said refined sugar was sold from ₱85 to ₱110 per kilogram in Metro Manila. Meanwhile, washed sugar was sold from ₱82 to ₱90, and brown sugar from ₱78 to ₱90.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ The Exchange on Friday, former BOC Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said excessive importation worsened smuggling.
\”The remedy in previous administrations was that we import. With that, we encourage smuggling. If smugglers can smuggle through our ports, they do not pay duties and taxes, they have an edge already once they sell it to the market, they gain an edge in the pricing of their goods,\” he said.
Ruiz added that the country’s smuggling problem required a \”whole of democracy approach.\”
“The Philippines alone cannot be the one fighting it. We must also strengthen our linkages with other government administrations in other countries,” he said.
