MANILA — The Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) has filed a formal complaint against two Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel over their alleged involvement in a Bulacan warehouse raid that uncovered allegedly smuggled cigarettes, according to a report by Journal News Online.
In a seven-page complaint filed Aug. 28, PNP-HPG Police Corporal Melvin Habbiling cited the sworn affidavit of an alleged middleman, Jesus Froilan Acebes Carpiso, who said he facilitated the sale of the smuggled cigarettes and identified those present during the raid. Carpiso's affidavit states that the two named BOC personnel were at the Santa Maria, Bulacan warehouse when the Regional Highway Patrol Unit-National Capital Region carried out the operation, and that they were the individuals who allegedly received payment in exchange for 225 boxes of Red Carnival cigarettes during what he described as a buy-bust entrapment operation on Aug. 19.
The complaint asks the reviewing office to "consider the same as integral parts of the records of the instant case" and to "determine individually the existence or absence of probable cause against each respondent," per the filing's prayer as quoted by Journal News Online.
BOC Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno has denied knowledge of the individuals named in the affidavit. In an Aug. 25 interview with the Bilyonaryo News Channel, Nepomuceno said he had no knowledge of the identified personnel, according to the same report.
Context
The complaint follows a physical confrontation between HPG and BOC personnel during the Aug. 19 raid, in which at least 12 HPG National Capital Region officers reportedly frisked and handcuffed some BOC personnel before BOC officials intervened. The two agencies have offered conflicting accounts: HPG maintains its operation targeted the seizure of smuggled cigarettes and the arrest of two BOC personnel allegedly reselling contraband, while BOC has said it was separately conducting a legitimate incineration operation for previously seized products. The PNP has since relieved 13 HPG personnel from their posts pending investigation into the confrontation, while characterizing the incident publicly as "isolated." BOC, for its part, has said it intends to pursue administrative cases against implicated personnel before the National Police Commission.
The dispute has unfolded against the backdrop of long-running concerns about illicit tobacco trade in the Philippines, which the Department of Finance and BOC have previously flagged as a significant source of lost government revenue. Neither the HPG complaint's outcome nor any BOC internal findings on the identified personnel have been publicly resolved as of this writing. Pulpulitiko will follow the case as it moves through the appropriate reviewing body.
Sources
- "PNP-HPG files complaint vs 2 BOC personnel in Bulacan raid," Journal News Online, People's Tonight, Aug. 31, 2026
- "PNP says HPG-BOC confrontation in Bulacan 'isolated incident,'" Philippine Daily Inquirer
- "Relief of 13 HPG personnel over clash with BOC 'not because they're guilty' — PNP," The Manila Times
