OFW Partylist Rep. Marissa Magsino urged the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to take action on the recurring problems on balikbayan boxes.
The party list representative highlighted how some boxes were destroyed, missing, or unclaimed. Moreover, the proposed investigation would allow for fraudulent international freight forwarders and their accomplices to be caught.
In 2022, the lawmaker filed House Resolution 499, concerning the ongoing modus operandi in the shipment and processing of balikbayan boxes. This was aligned with the BOC’s warning on some international freight forwarders who charge their customers cheap processing fees and promise to deliver the balikbayan boxes to the listed consignees in the Philippines.
According to Magsino, the packages shipped by these consolidators, fail to get their clearances from the BOC, resulting in its non-delivery.
The BOC report indicated that 11,561 balikbayan boxes were released this year. However last July, the agency appealed to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and their families to claim the remaining packages stored in their warehouse.
The agency is currently sorting the 4,969 balikbayan boxes that remain unclaimed.
Meanwhile, the abandoned packages have already gone through legal proceedings and will be donated to the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).
