(Photo courtesy of BOC) MANILA - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has so far seized around PHP117.4 million worth of illegal items through detection by 124 X-ray machines from January to September this year. Citing the latest data released on Friday, the bureau said the utilization of these existing machines led to the seizure of illicit items such as smuggled products and illegal drugs. This also resulted in the collection of additional duties and taxes worth PHP63.4 million. The BOC said the X-ray Inspection Project (XIP) procured four new mobile container X-ray machines to boost its scanning performance. It said the acquisition of the more advanced technology allows the non-intrusive detection of smuggled goods within containerized shipments and improves the capacity of the BOC in identifying misdeclared, undervalued, and undeclared commodities in a shorter period through the expeditious scanning capability of these additional assets. The new X-ray machines are expected to be fully turned over to the BOC in November. It will be deployed to various ports with high-volume scanning operations: Manila International Container Port; Port of Cebu; Port of Subic; and Port of Cagayan de Oro. (PNA) }