The Philippine National Police (PNP) has been grabbing headlines for successful  and high-impact anti-smuggling operations in various parts of the country in the past weeks, starting with the confiscation of around P1.1 billion worth of smuggled cigarettes in Batangas City on Dec. 31 last year.

The successful operations are gaining so much attention that even some policemen are now asking, “Isn’t it the job of the Bureau of Customs?"

But for Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jonvic Remulla, there’s nothing wrong with the PNP taking the lead since both the police and the BOC have the same objective anyway: to stop smuggling operations in the country.

“The BOC has 5,000 plus employees, the same as the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue). The PNP, on the other hand, has over 230,000 personnel,” Remulla said in explaining why the police appeared to be on the frontline of anti-smuggling operations.

“And they (BOC) have only less than 1,000 agents,” the DILG chief added during a press briefing in Pampanga where an illegal factory of cigarettes that could produce P150 million worth of cigarettes a day was discovered.

The investigation and intelligence build-up that led to the raid of the illegal cigarette factory in Mexico, Pampanga were done by the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

In the same briefing, CIDG director Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander Morico II said they began working on the case after a successful anti-cigarette smuggling operation in Mabini, Batangas in December last year.

“We started in Batangas in December last year and now, we have reached Mexico, Pampanga,” said Morico.

According to Morico, the CIDG already confiscated around P10 billion worth of cigarettes and machines that are being used in the illegal manufacture of cigarettes.

Aside from the Dec. 31 Batangas City operation by the PNP-Highway Patrol Group (HPG), the same police unit also seized P1.5 billion worth of smuggled cigarettes in Malabon the following day.

Late last month, HPG operatives also confiscated over P220 million of Apple products with questionable documents in Quezon City.

The series of successful anti-smuggling operations of the PNP came as the BOC is facing internal problem after two of its personnel—one assigned as the head of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) and the other one was chief of the CIIS in Port of Manila—were named in the complaint sent to President Marcos over allegations of resurgence of smuggling activities.

The BOC is yet to complete the conduct of investigation on two of its officials.

And where's the BOC in all these successful police-initiated anti-smuggling operations?

“They're with us. It’s a joint effort,” said Remulla when asked if there has been a failure of intelligence on the part of the BOC since the past high-impact anti-smuggling operations were initiated by the PNP.

“They (BOC) know everything. As soon as we have word, they are the ones conducting investigation and validation,” he added.