Mayor John Dalipe convened on Thursday, Oct. 5, the fourth quarter meeting of the City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) during which the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in Zamboanga City reported that it collected a total revenue of P6,752,129,508.37 covering the period from January to September this year.

Atty. Benito Lontok, BOC deputy collector, said the actual collection as of September may be short from the agency’s 2023 target revenue collection of P7.605 billion, but he was confident that the target can still be achieved by the end of this year.

Lontok also reported that the BOC Zamboanga had seized P1.69 billion worth of smuggled cigarettes, P71.9 million agricultural goods, P25 million fuel and other contrabands amounting to P3 million.

The agricultural smuggling included rice P42 million, onions P28 million, animal feeds P1.8 million and others valued at P7,500.

He said the BOC Zamboanga had conducted 66 apprehensions, of which 37 in Zamboanga City, 3 in Zamboanga Sibugay, 6 in Zamboanga del Sur, 18 in Zamboanga del Norte and 2 in Tawi-Tawi.

Meanwhile, city police director Col. Alexander Lorenzo reported that 69 shooting incidents had occurred in Zamboanga City as September this year, of which 62 had already been cleared, 33 solved and 7 under investigation.

The police had conducted 30 anti-illegal drugs operations which resulted in the arrest of 325 drug personalities, and the confiscation of 7 firearms and P20.9 million worth of shabu, including marijuana.

On smuggling, the police conducted 61 operations with 18 arrests and seized P350 million worth of smuggled goods. (Vic Larato)