TALAVERA, Nueva Ecija – Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno, along with National Bureau of Investigation director Melvin Matibag, led the inspection of P35.4-million worth of allegedly smuggled onion and garlic inside a huge cold storage in Barangay Calipahan here Monday.
Nepomuceno said the contraband – 6,088 bags of small yellow onions from Holland, 1,080 bags of big yellow onions from China, 3,780 bags of red onions from China, and 12,350 bags of garlic from China – found in a rented portion of Talco Cold Storage Corp. was seized for alleged violation of RA 12022 (Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act) and RA 10863 (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act).
This was a result an enforcement operation conducted by the Bureau of Customs-Intelligence Group, and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-Manila International Container Port, in coordination with the NBI and the Philippine Coast Guard, Nepomuceno added.
The warrant of seizure and detention has been issued on May 21, 2026 but investigation continued, he said, and will continue until all people behind the alleged offense against agriculture laws are unmasked.
Nepomuceno did not name names. He said, however, that the company behind the importation was a “regular shipper of various agricultural products including garlic.”
“Subalit hindi naman dahilan na kapag ikaw ay regular importer ay hindi ka na babatanyan,” he noted. “Kahit regular importer ‘yan, may volume ‘yan, may red flag tayong nakita, may ulat ang NBI, inaksiyunan pa rin natin.”
The customs chief said they found discrepancies in documents covering the importation.
Nueva Ecija is an onion-producing province, with its municipality of Bongabon, dubbed as Onion Basket of the Philippines.
Local farmers have long decried both legal importation and smuggling for causing huge losses on their part. Photos: BOC
