MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has held more magnetic lifters for inspection following back-to-back controversies with the industrial equipment.

The BOC invited newsmen to the Port of Manila on Wednesday, August 15, showing two orange magnetic lifters held in one of its warehouses because of alleged misdeclaration.

Using two x-ray machines – a scan of their own for containers and another specialized hand-held sweep from the US Homeland Security – and their own K-9 dogs perform a sniff,  they concluded that none of the lifters carried illegal drugs.

“It was found to be negative, but we are taking extra precautions because we found out that there’s a possibility that these magnetic lifters are used as containers of shabu,” said Port of Manila District Collector Erastus Austria, who also serves as the spokesperson of the Bureau of Customs.

Why was it put on hold? The magnetic lifters were brought to the Philippines from China on August 8 at the Manila South Harbor declared as “industrial overhead cranes.”

It was red-tagged so it underwent an x-ray scan without opening the cargo. The scan showed magnetic lifters aside from crane parts, so the BOC put them on hold.

Who owned them? Records from the Port of Manila showed that the shipment was consigned to a certain Wan Chiong Steel Corporation based along Quezon Road at Barangay San Isidro, in San Simon, Pampanga.

The goods were shipped by a certain Xiamen TopSun Trade Co. Ltd. So far, the BOC has not found anything irregular with the records of both companies.

Austria said Wan Chiong Steel Corp defended its declaration by saying that the magnetic lifters were already declared as part of the cranes’ “system.”

Will the lifters be opened? According to BOC’s Austria, they would not open the lifters since they still don’t have enough reason to do so. (READ: PDEA made ‘crucial mistake’ not quickly sharing shabu intel with Customs)

“If this is broken apart, these heavy equipment would be ruined…We will proceed to do that if we find something unusual in the x-ray or in the scanning process. In this particular instance, our x-ray personnel did not find anything when they scanned it,” Austria said.

Links with earlier lifters: So far, the only similarity between the new orange ones with the controversial yellow ones presented at the Manila port area on August 7 and at a Cavite warehouse on August 10 is that they were all sent to Manila from China.

They had different consignees. (READ: How P6.8-B ‘shabu’ slipped past PNP, PDEA, Customs)

Austria explained that it was not conclusive to link them through their size and appearance, as they are industrial equipment, saying, “Somehow, they look similar, but this is a component of heavy equipment. They all look similar.”

Will all lifters be stopped now? According to Austria, they could not simply stop all magnetic lifters they find as it would impede the Philippines’ trade with other countries.

Because the country is not strong in manufacturing, more pre-made goods like magnetic lifters would continue to be shipped, he added. – Rappler.com