More lawmakers hit BOC policy on OFW boxes

Cargo shippers in the US have more volume than ever before. PHOTO BY CRISTINA P. RODRIGUEZ

The policy of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to conduct random checks on “balikbayan” boxes, which has infuriated many overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), may yet be reviewed, as it has figuratively opened a Pandora’s box.

Malacañang on Sunday said it had received a lot of feedback from OFWs on the new BOC regulation and urged people to continue sending their complaints and apprehensions, promising these will reach authorities, including President Aquino.

“We want to thank them for their response and we assure you that these complaints will reach Customs Commissioner Bert Lina and President Aquino,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte.

Three senators and two party-list lawmakers have expressed concern over the new regulation, especially in light of many OFWs opposing it as it was prone to abuse and pilferage.

Speaking on state radio, Valte was asked if the Palace was in favor of the BOC random check of balikbayan boxes, which was meant to check smuggling of goods.

Valte said the BOC had its reasons for coming up with the new regulation, but she added that equally important was people’s feedback on government regulations.

“You know, programs of the government cannot exist based on our assessments alone. We also need feedback from those we are serving and we got a lot of videos, evidence and pictures on what has been happening to the balikbayan boxes due to the inspections,” she said.

Valte said the Palace received the complaints of OFWs via open letters, e-mails, Facebook posts and other social media platforms.

She said people could send their sentiments to the Twitter account of President Aquino and his other social media accounts.

Clarify directive

Sen. Cynthia Villar wanted the BOC to clarify its directive as the new policy was unclear, saying she received complaints from OFWs “who found (it) to be puzzling.”

“We should not let this practice by the unscrupulous few affect the privilege enjoyed by OFWs. Sending balikbayan boxes has been the tradition of Filipinos who want to stay connected to their loved ones,” she said in a statement.

Villar said she was aware that the BOC was allowed by law to open boxes “but pilferage is something the bureau cannot assure at the moment.”

Smuggling via boxes

An average of 1,000 containers of balikbayan boxes (400 boxes per container) arrive each month in Philippine ports, according to the BOC. It estimated that the government was losing P50 million a month or P600 million a year to smuggling through this channel.

But lawmakers argued that this was just a small amount compared with the smuggled goods worth $20 billion to $24 billion a year based on the disparity between the official data of exports to the country and the country’s recorded imports.

Defending its move to be more meticulous with balikbayan boxes that enter the country, the BOC on Sunday said it was not after OFWs or their hard-earned “pasalubong” (homecoming gifts) for loved ones but after smugglers or “riders” who sneak in contraband through fake consignees.

In a statement issued by its public information and assistance division, the BOC said it was neither increasing taxes on balikbayan boxes nor trying to impede existing processes.

“We are after the smugglers who have resorted to using the balikbayan boxes and consolidated shipments to smuggle contraband in the country through fake consignees or insertion of smuggled boxes or goods, otherwise known as riders, in consolidated shipments,” it said.

Report tampering

The BOC advised families or relatives of OFWs who would be receiving “severely tampered” balikbayan boxes or those with missing items to report the matter to the bureau for assistance.

“Let us know so we can properly help you,” it said.

The BOC issued the statement after several lawmakers lambasted its plan to clamp down on balikbayan boxes on suspicion that these were being used as a smuggling channel while huge containers and smuggled luxury cars continued to enter the country right under the noses of customs personnel.

The agency said existing rules on balikbayan boxes still applied, including inspection as provided in the law. But since it was not technologically equipped to scrutinize all incoming boxes, spot checks will continue to be conducted as an alternative move, it said.

Stricter compliance to the law was necessary because the provisions on consolidated shipments have been abused, it explained.

Senate grilling

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said he intended to grill BOC officials on the status of nonintrusive inspection techniques, which could detect contraband goods without resorting to opening balikbayan boxes.

Recto, chair of the Senate finance subcommittee, said he would do the questioning during the hearings on BOC’s proposed 2016 budget. “There are ways to catch the rat without burning the house down,” he said in a statement.

He said the BOC’s operating budget this year funded programs to go after big-time smugglers, which included P298 million for the maintenance of 30 big X-ray machines installed in the country’s 10 biggest ports and which can scan one 40- and 20-foot shipping container in minutes.

Recto also pushed government to increase to $1,500 from $500 the value of the contents of balikbayan boxes exempt from taxes to remove the motive to check shipped or mailed parcels for dutiable goods.

Raising the threshold of a balikbayan box value was a “small thing compared to the P2.28 trillion that they sent back home last year.”

Sen. JV Ejercito said he was not in favor of the new customs policy considering that balikbayan boxes “symbolized the love of OFWs for their families.”

Ejercito, speaking on a radio station, said that while the policy was being implemented, the government was hailing the OFWs as the new heroes.

House inquiry

In the House of Representatives, two party-list lawmakers have called for a congressional inquiry into the BOC proposal to open and inspect more balikbayan boxes.

Bayan Muna Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate said they would file on Monday a resolution to investigate the proposal. They also cited vehement reactions on social media against the new scheme, which might open the door to more corruption in the bureau.

“We have received numerous reports on this proposal even in social media and all of them are against it,” Colmenares said in a statement.

Asked to comment, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. indicated the issue was not yet clear to him.

“Do you mean just because it is in a balikbayan box, even if not accompanied by the owner, it is not inspected at all? So even if somebody ships something, it is not inspected if it’s contained in a balikbayan box?” he said in a text message.

Colmenares said it “is not good that while tons of garbage and smuggled contrabands enter the country, the BOC would train their sights on overseas Filipino workers and their families.”

To shore up its revenues, Colmenares suggested that the BOC “instead curb immense corruption in the agency and target big-time smugglers rather than harass OFWs.”

“If continued, this practice would just be another source of corruption to expedite the inspection as well as theft. This would also slow down the process and further congest ports,” he said.

Zarate said the P600-million annual loss of the BOC was a “very paltry sum” compared with the billions lost to corruption and smuggling.

He argued that it was enough to check balikbayan boxes through X-ray machines to see the contents without opening them.–With a report from

Jocelyn R. Uy

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