The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) intercepted approximately 1,000 boxes of smuggled cigarettes loaded in 20-foot and 40-foot container vans at around 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in the North Reclamation Area, Mandaue City.
Captain Jerome Lozada, station commander of Coast Guard Station Cebu, estimated the total value of the shipment to be between P70 million and P80 million.
Lozada explained that on May 11, 2026, they received an intelligence report about a cargo shipment containing smuggled cigarettes that would pass through Pier 7 in Mandaue City.
The PCG alerted its monitoring teams at the ports of Cebu City and Mandaue City and spotted two suspicious trailer trucks carrying container vans leaving Pier 7. They immediately followed the trucks, but after a few meters, both trucks stopped and abandoned the container vans.
Lozada suspects that the drivers noticed they were being followed, prompting them to abandon the vehicles.
“Our troops stayed put and watched the container vans, waiting for the trucks to return because we expected they would come back. It was unusual to leave them on the roadside. Unfortunately, after hours of waiting, the trucks never returned. Then, based on the report we received, our troops checked the vans and found them suspicious,” Lozada said.
The PCG coordinated with the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to open the two vans and verify whether taxes had been paid on the cigarettes. It was determined that the cigarettes had been illegally brought into Cebu.
An investigation is ongoing with other government agencies to trace the origin and the receiver of the cigarette boxes.
The PCG official suspects that the illegal cigarettes were intended for distribution within Cebu.
Lozada revealed that this is the second time they have intercepted a large shipment of smuggled cigarettes and that they will continue to intensify monitoring to prevent such illegal activities.
