General Santos port new entry point for smuggled cars – Customs chief

Some smugglers of completely knocked down (CKD) vehicles have moved to bringing their cargo in through the port in General Santos City, Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla said Thursday.

"The smuggling of CKD vehicles is very fast moving. If you will monitor the ports from month to month, they come in from different ports. So last April, the trend was... Gen San," he said.

He said that the Customs bureau has recorded at least three incidents in the last two weeks and that it will continue to monitor the port.

"That is why we pay attention. If there are cases when an importer brings some cars via General Santos City, we would check the address of the importer and it's in Quezon City..." he added.

The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) has previously seized nine secondhand CKD cars — cars that have to be assembled when they arrive—at the Port of Davao. The vehicles, brought in from Japan, were worth an estimated P2.7 million.

"This is challenging for us because we have to guess which port they would try to access next. You would have to be on guard in ports where there is little activity," the BOC chief said. — JDS, GMA News