Assorted vape products from China were falsely declared as kitchenware in an attempt to smuggle them into the Philippines, authorities said.
Officials from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday, July 31, seized three containers of misdeclared vape products and other regulated goods worth P40.5 million at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).
The BOC reported that “Hold Orders” were issued for the shipments as early as January, following derogatory information received by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service.
A physical inspection conducted on July 14 uncovered 81,000 pieces of assorted vape products inside the containers.
The shipment also contained sacks of fully refined paraffin wax and other misdeclared goods.
The BOC said the shipment violated the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act, and related DTI regulations.
The agency is also conducting a case build-up to identify and prosecute those behind the smuggling.
The Department of Health said that smoking and vaping can kill, citing that the latter poses major health risks like e-cigarette or vapor product-associated lung injury (EVALI), nicotine addiction and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, among others.
“The Philippines has already recorded and published its first case of E-cigarette or Vaping Use-associated Lung Injury (EVALI)-related death in a 22-year-old athletic male who had no history of smoking or other vices, but started vaping at an early age,” it said before.
