November 22, 2025 | 6:21pm
COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Philippine Navy personnel have seized P180.9 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia in a five-day offshore anti-smuggling operation in the territorial seas of Sulu in Southern Mindanao.
Senior officials of the Western Mindanao Command and the Western Mindanao Naval Command (WMNC) separately told reporters on Saturday, November 22, that the Navy’s November 13 to 17 seaborne anti-smuggling operations in the municipal waters of Tapul, Banguingui, Lugus, and Jolo towns in Sulu also resulted in the impoundment of the six small seacrafts carrying the imported cigarettes.
The six small vessels, the M/B Radzboy, loaded with P29 million worth of Indonesian-made cigarettes, the M/V Arianne, M/V Dakila, M/B Muramurahan, F/B Princess Wania and M/B Yathrib, carrying 17.3 million, P64.2 million, P37.3 million, P23.3 million and P9.8 million worth of the same contraband, respectively, are now berthed at the Romulo Espaldon Naval Post in a seaside area in WestMinCom’s command center in Zamboanga City.
The anti-smuggling operations of WMNC units in Sulu was assisted by local executives who provided information about the supposed delivery by the six seacrafts of cigarettes from Indonesia to buyers in the provinces of Sulu and Basilan, in seaside areas in the Zamboanga peninsula, in Lanao del Sur in the Bangsamoro region and in Sultan Kudarat in Region 12.
“To all of those who helped the Western Mindanao Naval Command foil the planned delivery of the smuggled cigarettes to traders in provinces under our jurisdiction, we are very grateful,” Major Gen. Donald Gumiran, commander of the WestMinCom, said.
Officials told reporters that the successful anti-smuggling operations were also supported by the Sulu Provincial Police Office and the Police Maritime Unit in the island province.
The WMNC has turned over to the Bureau of Customs the 2,874 boxes of smuggled cigarettes, costing P180.9 million, confiscated during the five-day anti-smuggling operations in Sulu by seafaring Navy servicemen.
The WMNC, which is based in Bagong Calarian in Zamboanga City, has also reportedly endorsed to the police all of the 35 crewmen of the six small boats carrying the smuggled cigarettes for procedural inquest.