A mountain of used clothes seized in Subic

The Bureau of Customs seized a “mountain of banned used clothing” or “ ukay-ukay” worth more than P100 million at the port of Subic in Zambales.

Customs Deputy Commissioner Celso Templo rushed to Subic upon receiving reports of the big catch by the intelligence and Enforcement Group(IEG)to oversee its inventory and to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the smugglers.

Investigation showed the person or persons behind the foiled smuggling attempt pointed to the same persons whose shipments of used clothing were seized by the bureau recently.

“I am reviving the case of smuggling against the persons involved in the attempted smuggling of ukay-ukay which the bureau seized in a raid in a parañaque warehouse last January,” Templo said.

The smuggling case filled against the persons involve in the previous foiled smuggle of P100 million worth of ukay-ukay did not reach the court because his predecessor recommended by that the case be dismissed for lack of evidence.

Templo said the seized used clothing as the Port of Subic came from Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand and the United states.

Importations of used clothing in commercial quantity are banned and are subject to summary seizure by the Bureau of Customs. Despite the ban, however, smuggling of used clothing continues as shown by the proliferation of ukay-ukay in Metro Manila.

Templo said that he would request Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina to allow the IEG to conduct “visitorial power” on ukay-ukay stores to check on their import documents and if found that the items sold are smuggled, be confiscated.

“This is one way of discouraging smuggling of banned used clothing, aside from filling cases against those involve,” Templo added.