4 freight-forwarding firms cleared

THE PHILIPPINE Shippers Bureau (PSB) has cleared four of several local freight-forwarding companies whose accreditations it had briefly revoked amid mounting complaints mostly by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) regarding undelivered balikbayan boxes.

The PSB is an agency attached to the Department of Trade and Industry.

For taking swift action on the complaints of their customers, the PSB on October 25 cleared Transtech Global Philippines Inc., LCSN Express Movers Inc., Wide Wide World Express Corp. and MC Plus Inc. to continue operating.

The PSB, responsible for the accreditation of local cargo forwarding companies, had earlier issued show-cause orders to the firms in connection with the complaints.

But in a Nov. 12 letter to the Inquirer, Transtech Global Philippines Inc. described as “highly defamatory” a recent report in the Inquirer that identified the firm as one of several PSB-blacklisted freight forwarders.

“The truth is our client’s accreditation was never revoked, neither was it put among the blacklisted Philippine freight forwarders as shown on the list issued by the PSB dated Oct. 31, 2012,” said lawyers Demetrio Custodio Jr. and Tiffany Li.

Custodio and Li said that “after the article was published, our client not only received anxious calls from customers but, worse, it lost potential and existing customers due to the mentioned libelous article published in your newspaper.”

The news item said the revocation of the accreditation of over 20 firms, including Transtech Global Philippines, was announced by PSB Director Victorio Dimagiba on October 15 at the weekly Kapihan sa Aduana media forum at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) main office in Manila.

Aside from the Inquirer, several other broadsheets reported the same thing.

Newsmen at the forum, including Chito Junia, president of the BOC Press Corps, quoted Dimagiba as saying the revocation of the forwarding companies’ accreditations was “one way to change the paradigm and address the problem on balikbayan boxes.”

“We blacklist them … The PSB-accredited companies were issued show-cause orders,” Dimagiba had said, as he explained that the PSB moved after receiving numerous complaints from OFWs, who had either been duped or made to pay additional charges for their balikbayan boxes that were never delivered.

Dimagiba then said that revoked were the accreditations of D’Winner Logistics Philippines Inc., LCSN Express Movers, Wide Wide World Express Corp., MC Plus and Transtech Global Philippines Inc., among others.

However, 10 days after the BOC news conference, the PSB cleared Transtech Global Philippines and the three other freight forwarding companies.