Bureau of Customs Commissioner Bien Rubio delivers a speech during the BOC’s Inter-Agency Intelligence Summit held on Friday, October 18, 2024 in Batangas. Photo courtesy of the Bureau of Customs

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs (BOC) confiscated a total of P72.091 billion worth of smuggled goods from January to October 2024, surpassing its total haul of P43.29 billion in 2023.

This was announced during the BOC’s Inter-Agency Intelligence Summit in Batangas on Friday, where P3.09 billion of the total collected value was recorded in October alone.

According to the BOC, counterfeit goods in October are trailed by commodities worth P2.3 billion, cigarettes worth P22.3 million, rice sacks worth P323 million, and a vessel carrying smuggled petroleum products.

Illegal drugs worth P42.16 million were also intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport this year, the BOC added.

In a statement, BOC Commissioner Bien Rubio noted that the bureau’s accomplishments during the past 10 months are “a record-breaking feat.”

“This proves that our combined efforts are not only effective, but essential in combating smuggling and other illicit activities,” he added.

During the summit, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto emphasized the importance of intelligence, calling it the “vanguard” of law enforcement.

“From a finance and budgetary point of view, it is an economical form of warfare because good intelligence saves lives, disarms threats, defuses tensions, and stops conflicts and crimes from happening,” he added.

He also stressed that the BOC must employ traditional and modern approaches to effectively combat smuggling in the country.

“In the case of smuggling of goods, it is a crime that victimizes millions –  from farmers who drown from the flood of imported agricultural products, to entrepreneurs whose businesses are choked by unfair trade. Outwitting them requires agility in action, and openness to new ideas and techniques,” Recto added.

Rubio also acknowledged the “reinforced collaboration” between agencies that led to the BOC’s achievements in 2023 and 2024.

“In the face of increasingly complex threats, we must stand as a united front. With each of us having diverse expertise in the field of intelligence, we are afforded the opportunity to achieve far more collectively than any agency could accomplish alone,”  he said.

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