BRUSSELS: The Bureau of Customs filed smuggling charges against five top officials and the customs broker of a steel importing firm for attempting to illegally import steel products worth around PHP 14.3 million.
Smuggling related cases were filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against officials of Stellent Corp., namely chairman of the board Mr Rico Rigor Cayunda Cinco, board members’ Mr Charmayne De La Peña Angeles, Mr Asuncion Petra Angeles, Ms Maria Rhezy G. Ilada, Mr Ruge Robert S. Illada, and customs broker Mr John Philip Malinao Yap for alleged unlawful importation of steel angle bars from China.
They brought into the country 15 20-foot container vans of steel angle bars without the necessary Import Commodity Clearance (ICC) from the Department of Trade and Industry-Bureau of Product Standards (DTI-BPS).
The shipment arrived from China at the Port of Manila in July 2014. The importer and customs broker violated section 3601 in relation to Section 101 of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) as amended by Republic Act (RA) 7651.
