A combined worth of P3.72 billion smuggled electric cigarettes or vapes were discovered in separate warehouses in the cities of Parañaque and Malabon, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) reported Friday, March 1.

Simultaneous inspections spearheaded by Customs officials yielded over 1.5 million pieces of smuggled vapes of the Flava brand and 1.98 million vapes in separate warehouses in Paranaque and Malabon, respectively.

In Paranaque, around 15,000 boxes of vapes were found in a certain Olivares compound, containing 100 pieces per box, said Verne Enciso, director of Customs intelligence and investigation service (CIIS).

“The current market value [of vape] is P500 per piece, so that’s a total of P750 million. Add to that the excise tax that should be collected, and the total estimated sum up value would be P1.53 billion,” Enciso said.

The excise tax on each e-cigarette is worth P520, so the government would have collected around P780 million from the 1.5 million pieces of smuggled vapes, he claimed.

Enciso said that these e-cigarettes were only discovered in one of the warehouses in Parañaque City and that other warehouses are still being examined.

Meanwhile, in Malabon, the BOC CIIS discovered a warehouse storing more or less 19,800 boxes each containing 100 pieces of smuggled vapes or a total of 1.98 million pieces, at least during an initial inventory.

With the price marked at P550 for each e-cigarette, the total market value would be at P1.089 billion, while the excise tax would amount to P1,029,600,000, the Customs said.

This would translate to a total worth of P2,118,600,000 for smuggled vape products in Malabon alone.

In addition, the BOC also found an undetermined quantity of vape products in a storage facility in the same warehouse and coincidentally saw a wing van truck unloading stocks of vape products during the inspection.

“Our team today scores a win against these smugglers. There’s a huge popularity of e-cigarettes or vapes among Filipinos, especially the younger generations, these days, so we are here to make sure they only get access to the safest products in the market,” BOC Deputy Commissioner Juvymax Uy for Intelligence Group stated.

For BOC Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio, whose eyes are set on the P1 trillion revenue collections this year, he said that the agency will remain “steadfast in its commitment to enforce our responsibility of border protection,”

“We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to bring smugglers to justice,” he added.