Customs charges broker, trader for smuggling P97-M Asus computers

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday charged with smuggling a trader and a broker for the failed attempt to sneak into the country 3,915 Asus laptop computers worth P96 million. Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon led the filing of cases against Orza Marketing owner and general manager Rolando Peralta, as well as his broker, Manuel Lancero Sarmiento, before the Department of Justice. They were charged with the violation of Sections 2503 and 2530 of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines. Biazon said that he had already “instructed all our [BOC] operatives to be even more vigilant in monitoring all shipments entering the country," considering that “the months immediately preceding the Christmas holidays are the peak months of smuggling." The shipment declared as computer parts and monitors was found to contain complete units of Asus brand laptop computers. The BOC said the value of the computers smuggled in from China was around P96,840,590.96. Deputy Customs Commissioner Horacio Suansing Jr., whose BOC Enforcement Group confiscated the Peralta shipment of misdeclared and undervalued computers, said it was part of the commission’s “relentless efforts to go after smugglers." Deputy Customs Commissioner Peter Manzano of the Revenue Collection Monitoring Group, who is also in charge of the Run After The Smugglers Program or RATS, said his department was currently studying measures to tighten the cases filed against smugglers. —MRT/VS, GMA News