COTABATO CITY (December 4, 2025) — Policemen seized P19.4 million worth of imported cigarettes piled inside a warehouse in Barangay Wal in the seaside Palimbang town in Sultan Kudarat on Sunday night, November 30.
Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said on Wednesday that the cigarettes from Indonesia are now in their custody, to be turned over to the Bureau of Customs for its disposition.
Lt. Col. Gary Flor Marfil, chief of the Palimbang municipal police, and Ardiente separately told reporters that it was local officials who reported the stockpiling by smugglers of cigarettes from Indonesia in a warehouse in Barangay Wal, enabling them to promptly launch the anti-smuggling operation that resulted in the seizure of the contraband.
Local officials and barangay leaders said the caretaker of the warehouse, Benladin Usop, had escaped when he sensed that policemen were approaching the warehouse from two directions.
Combined personnel of the Palimbang Municipal Police Station and the Charlie Company of the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion, led by 1Lt. Patrick John Pacres, found in the warehouse 499 large boxes containing cigarettes with different Indonesian brands, costing P19.4 million.
Ardiente said PRO-12 is grateful to the vigilant Palimbang residents who provided police officials in the municipality vital information that resulted in the confiscation of the imported cigarettes.
Photo shows investigators documenting the result of their raid of the warehouse in Barangay Wal where soldiers and policemen found and P19.4 million worth of cigarettes from Indonesia.