Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina on Tuesday urged local freight forwarding companies to install X-ray machines in their respective warehouses to help speed up the clearance process for “balikbayan” boxes.
An estimated 1,500 containers of balikbayan boxes arrive in the country each month, according to the BOC.
If the forwarders heed Lina’s call, the scrutiny in their warehouses will complement the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) mandatory X-ray examinations of all balikbayan boxes that President Aquino has ordered in lieu of random physical inspection of the items.
In a statement, Lina said the X-ray checks would be made “at no extra cost to the overseas Filipinos who sent the boxes.”
The President directed the bureau to stop the random inspection of balikbayan boxes unless X-ray checks indicate the presence of prohibited items like drugs and guns.
The decision came after Aquino met with Lina and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima on Monday afternoon upon returning from an official trip to Cebu City.
Tangible sign of love
The President noted that overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) families considered the balikbayan box an integral part of the family setup, a “tangible sign of their (the OFWs’) love and concern for their family members.”
An undisclosed number of OFWs have turned to social media to slam the bureau’s more stringent policy on the inspection of balikbayan boxes.
Lina assured the public that the BOC, a Department of Finance-attached agency, would “ensure the necessary checks and balances, like ensuring that witnesses will be present in the event a physical inspection of boxes is made.”
“We are already looking into ways of acquiring K9 [dog] units and additional CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras for our ports through emergency procurement,” he said.
The BOC head asked the public to “report customs employees who commit unauthorized physical inspections of balikbayan boxes by submitting photos and videos of these acts so we can act on them.”
‘They’re heroes, not smugglers’
Vice President Jejomar Binay expressed hope that customs authorities would follow Aquino’s directive for the BOC not to examine balikbayan boxes except for those that could pose a threat to public safety.
“I hope the directive is followed,” Binay told Radyo Inquirer, when asked about his reaction to Aquino’s directive to the BOC.
He said he had been reading reports that this kind of directives just end up as proposals.
Binay said the BOC should not treat OFWs, who he said were the “country’s heroes,” as if they were smugglers, out to no good when they send balikbayan boxes home.
“They have helped the country with their remittances. Why are they destroying the image of the OFWs?” he said of the BOC.
Not Palace idea
Malacañang disputed Sen. Nancy Binay’s claim that the controversial BOC plan to conduct random checks on balikbayan boxes was actually a brainchild of the Palace.
Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma also strongly denied the senator’s allegation that the policy was politically motivated.
“There is no truth and no basis” for the senator’s accusations, he told reporters.
At the same time, Coloma defended Lina, saying the official was just concerned about the misuse of balikbayan boxes by smugglers of drugs, gun parts and other prohibited items.
In November 2014 alone, an undisclosed number of gun parts and ammunition were found in seven balikbayan boxes, according to the BOC.
Iloilo City resolution
In Iloilo City, the council has backed calls to investigate plans of the BOC to scrutinize boxes sent home by OFWs.
In a unanimously passed resolution, the council supported calls in the Senate and House of Representatives to investigate BOC plans to impose random physical inspection of balikbayan boxes purportedly to combat smuggling.
The calls came before Aquino ordered the BOC not to conduct random physical inspections except on boxes that pose a threat to public security.
Councilor Joshua Alim, who sponsored the resolution, said the restrictions violate the privacy of OFWs who are working hard for their families in the Philippines.
He said physically opening the boxes would be prone to abuse.–Reports from Jerry E. Esplanada and Christine O. Avendaño in Manila, and Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas