Senate to hold inquiry into ‘balikbayan’ box flap

Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will have their say on the strict monitoring of balikbayan boxes when the Senate tackles the issue in the presence of customs authorities in a joint committee hearing next week.

The hearing, which will be held either next Tuesday or Thursday, will be called by the Senate committee on ways and means and committee on labor which will examine the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act that has been pending in Congress over a decade now, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara said on Thursday.

Angara, who chairs the ways and means committee, said the Senate would look into the issue of the balikbayan boxes even if Malacañang had already stopped the Bureau of Customs (BOC) regulation that has infuriated OFWs who feared that the policy was prone to abuse and pilferage.

He said the investigation was in response to the seven resolutions filed by seven senators—Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Grace Poe, Nancy Binay, JV Ejercito and Paolo Aquino—who pushed for the inquiry.

“We will make sure that the voice of our OFWs will be heard so we will invite the representatives of the OFW sector,” Angara said at the Kapihan sa Senado forum.

Also to be invited are BOC Commissioner Bert Lina, officials of the Department of Budget and Management, Department of Finance and businessmen and trade groups such as the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

Angara said they would ask customs officials to explain the conditions that led them to adopt the policy of random inspection of balikbayan boxes.

Angara said the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act would address the concerns of OFWs through the proposal to increase the tax exemption for goods they bring in to the country up to P150,000.

Right now, the current customs and tariff code only allows tax exemption of these goods up to P10,000 which he said was very low given that prices of goods are higher now.

The proposed law also seeks to update the “de minimis” value in the old law which allows the taxation of goods like chocolates and wine, which OFWs and travelers bring home that are not duty-free as long as they amount higher to P10, he said.

Angara said his committee aims to come out with a report on the proposed measure by the middle of next month so that it could be debated on the floor.

The House version is now on second reading.

The senator said the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act is a priority bill of President Aquino and Senate President Franklin Drilon.—Christine O. Avendaño