A total of P19 million worth of allegedly smuggled sugar had been seized at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Friday, Jan. 13.
The agriculture department said the smuggled sugar came in five-container cargo and confiscated last Jan. 11.
The cargo was declared as insulators, surge arresters, slippers outsoles, and styrene butadiene rubber, the DA said.
But upon inspection, authorities found out that the shipment was containing refined sugar.
DA Assistant Secretary James Layug said the department is now preparing to file legal charges against the shipment's consignee, Burias Jang Consumer Goods Trading, for the shipment's misdeclaration and misclassification, as both the Food Safety Act of 2013 (Republic Act No. 10611) and the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 (Republic Act No. 10845) were violated.
The shipment was put on hold order on Nov. 29, 2022, following the request of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for the Department of Agriculture Inspectorate and Enforcement (DA I&E).
From December 2022 to January 2023, the agriculture department and other government agencies seized a total of P78.9 million in illegally imported agricultural goods at the MICP.