Zambo mayor warns smugglers anew

ZAMBOANGA MAYOR Beng G Climaco warned smugglers anew to stop their unscrupulous acts and ordered the police and military forces intensify the operations against those behind the criminal activities, including their masterminds or financiers.

The latest warning came following the confiscation of smuggled cigarettes worth about P5 million on June 19 just 10 days after members of the 2nd Zamboanga City Mobile Force Company led by Lt. Chris John Riege Sundayan also intercepted a motorboat loaded with smuggled cigarettes worth over P6 million off Santa Cruz Island in Zamboanga City. 

Climaco said the local government remains firm on its policy against smuggling and continues its efforts to thwart any attempt to use the city as a transit point for contraband items. 

She also ordered police authorities to seize smuggled cigarettes being sold by traders in Zamboanga. 

 “We do not want Zamboanga City to be a smuggling capital so our police, military and other partners in the security sector continue our efforts to implement our policies against smuggling,” the mayor said. 

“The police authorities and the Bureau of Customs are working closely to investigate and determine the personalities or groups behind the smuggled items intercepted in Zamboanga City. We do not let these smuggled items pass through Zamboanga City,” she added. 

In May, the Philippine Navy also seized smuggled cigarettes worth P17.5 million from two motorboats off Zamboanga. It said the boats - MB Nurshida and MB Dreamboy - originated from Sulu province and were intercepted off Barangay Ayala and Sinunuc. 

It said the MB Nurshida, manned by 7 crewmen, was loaded with 228 cases of Cannon cigarettes worth about P7.9 million when it was stopped by patrol boats near the shoreline of Ayala village. While the MB Dreamboy was carrying 274 cases of assorted cigarette brands worth about P9.6 million. 

Climaco, a fierce anti-smuggling advocate, has strongly supported President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign to put a stop to the rampant smuggling of fuel, vehicles and cigarettes in the country that resulted in losses of more than P300 billion in annual revenues. (Claudine Uniana, Zamboanga Post)

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