ALMOST half a billion pesos worth of counterfeit apparel was seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at the Port of Manila.
BOC Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip Maronilla said they received intelligence reports about a shipment carrying possible counterfeit goods. The said shipment originated from Bangladesh and was transshipped to Singapore before arriving in Manila.
Upon inspection, Customs found that the container vans held 1,287 boxes of clothes, which were declared as socks. The clothes included branded shirts and pants, but they are believed to be counterfeit or fake. The value of the counterfeit apparel is P482 million.
“Ang modus is to make it appear that these items came from big department stores. Sold for sale or old stocks kunwari,” said Maronilla.
He added that the items would have been sold online or in some thrift shops with sellers branding them as original items with a huge discount. He said this will be enticing to consumers, especially this holiday season.
“Fifty to 60 percent of consumer goods tumataas talaga volume – pang-regalo, pang-celebrate sa Pasko,” he said.
Matonilla added, “May panloloko pang ginawa. It’s both smuggling and a scam criminal activity.”
BOC will file a case against the consignee, but will also check other persons of interest because each box contains the name of a store or company.
The bureau said it is beefing up efforts against counterfeit goods to support legitimate businesses, to help the government’s revenue collection efforts, and for consumers to get quality and genuine products. (ABS-CBN News)
