Like Santa Claus bearing gifts

At this early, someone would like to play the role of Santa Claus to millions of our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their families here in the Philippines. Playing this role to our so-called “modern heroes” is the Bureau of Customs (BOC). Less the flying sleigh of reindeers, the Customs Bureau assures the delivery – free of charge – of some 8,000 “balikbayan” boxes sent by our OFWs to their respective families but have remained unclaimed.

Left abandoned for the past seven months, the huge volumes of balikbayan boxes were being held at the BOC warehouses in Sta. Ana, Manila and in Balagtas, Bulacan.

In an official statement issued last Oct. 27, the BOC announced that all abandoned packages shipped by Island Kabayan Express Cargo LLC and Win Balikbayan Cargo LLC would be delivered within one to four weeks, depending on the location of the recipient. The delivery would take one week for NCR, one to two weeks for Luzon, and two to four weeks for Visayas and Mindanao, the BOC promised.

“BOC will not collect any fee for the delivery of balikbayan boxes,” the statement cited.

“For the welfare of the OFWs and their families, BOC allocated resources to deliver the boxes directly to recipients,” it added. Claimants or recipients of the balikbayan boxes only need to present any government ID, copy of the receipt and/or authorization letter who will receive it for them.

Among other reasons, most of these abandoned balikbayan boxes were largely due to unpaid tariff duties and other fees that unscrupulous consolidators and dubious freight forwarders here and abroad failed to comply with. Hence, the sending OFWs – most often than not – were not aware that their balikbayan boxes have not been released and withheld by the BOC.

An immediate solution eyed to stop these unscrupulous activities of consolidators and forwarders is the creation of a Balikbayan Box One-Stop-Shop, the BOC disclosed. An inter-agency agreement between the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Migrant Workers, and the BOC is now being drafted to create this.

Hopefully, this Balikbayan Box One-Stop-Shop will really be able to stop these illicit activities deceiving and victimizing our OFWs and their families. This is not to mention attempts to smuggle contrabands, including illegal drugs by taking advantage of balikbayan boxes of OFWs.

Talking about smuggling again, let me share with you a rejoinder to a rejoinder involving the latest seizure of alleged smuggled imported sugar from Thailand at the Port of Manila of the BOC. In the spirit of fair play, reprinted below is the full reply on the Letter to the Editor that came out in this corner as stated in the following:

Dear Ms. Villanueva:

This has reference to the letter dated October 21, 2022 of MANNY MACAINAG, President of BEE CRESCENT BLENDING CORPORATION as clarification to your column which appeared in the October 21, 2022 issue of The Philippine Star bearing on the sugar shipment pending before this Port consigned to GRANOTRADE LIMITED.

Mr. Macainag asserted that the Bureau of Customs committed another blunder in issuing a Warrant of Seizure and Detention (WSD) against the shipment of 38x20’ Containers Said to Contain: Thailand Cane Refined Sugar consigned to GRANOTRADE LIMITED which arrived at this Port on September 24, 2022.

Moreover, Mr. Macainag alleged that the subject shipment was made pursuant to Sugar Order No. 2 of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and that the same is covered by   all necessary import documents, particularly the SRA Clearance of Release Imported Sugar which it submitted on October 3, 2022.

We wish to state that on October 4, 2022, the Office of the District Collector issued Alert Order No. A/MICP/20221004-00052 based on processed information that the consignee of the shipment, GRANOTRADE LIMITED, is a fictitious company and that the subject importation was not covered by the requisite SRA import clearance as reported by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) of the Bureau of Customs.

On October 7, 2022, the assigned Customs Examiner conducted the physical examination of the shipment who reported that there was no discrepancy with respect to the description/content thereof.  However, he reported that the importation was not covered by the required SRA permit.

Based on the foregoing stated circumstances, we maintain that the Port conducted due diligence prior to issuance of WSD against the subject shipment docketed as Seizure Identification Nos. 151-2022 & 152-2022.

Our records show that BEE CRESCENT BLENDING CORP. filed a request for amendment  of the manifest for the shipment to change the consignee’s name from GRANOTRADE LIMITED to BEE CRESCENT BLENDING CORP. on  October 10, 2022. However, the  said  request was made after the issuance of Alert Order on October 4, 2022.  Evidently, this is an attempt to cure the defect of the shipment arising from the fact that GRANOTRADE    LIMITED is non-existent in the Philippines based on the report submitted by the CIIS of this Bureau.

Considering that a Warrant of Seizure and Detention has been issued against the subject shipment and pursuant to the constitutionally-mandated requirement of due process, the parties, including Mr. Manny Macainag as President of BEE CRESCENT and all other concerned will be given the opportunity to present their respective claims and defenses during the conduct of the seizure proceedings.

We wish to reiterate that there is a pending seizure case and there is no adjudication that has been rendered on the case which is presently ongoing.

Very truly yours, ARNOLDO L. FAMOR, Acting District Collector.

As lawyers would tell the court, case submitted and let the due process settle this one way or the other.

As a postscript to my column last Friday (Oct. 28), let me correct the identity of one of the two female associate justices of the 15-man Supreme Court. Aside from Associate justice Felomina Singh, the other is Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier. Mea culpa.