BOC files raps vs 5 cargo firms over abandoned balikbayan boxes

MANILA, Philippines —The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Friday filed another round of criminal charges, this time against five cargo companies, over thousands of balikbayan boxes just gathering dust in various ports in the country.

Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno on Friday said the BOC lodged complaints before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Ikthus Trading Corporation, Marcelo D. Laylo Cargo Forwarders, Me Amoree International Consumer Goods Trading, MT De Guzman Non-Specialized Wholesale Trading, and Cargoflex Haulers Corporation for multiple violations of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).

READ: BOC files raps vs cargo firm over 40,000 abandoned packages

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The complaints cover a total of 3,176 boxes that were left undelivered or improperly handled by the five companies in the last three years. The number is part of the 42,063 balikbayan boxes that the BOC found were left abandoned by 11 erring cargo firms in various ports.

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According to Nepomuceno, many of the parcels contained food, medicines, clothing, and other items painstakingly collected by OFWs over several months for their families back home – a tradition among migrant workers and a symbol of progress for many of them.

“When we heard their stories, we learned that they had been collecting the contents of these boxes for months,” Nepomuceno said during a press briefing at the DOJ headquarters in Manila.

“And they set aside a portion of their income, which we also learned was not so much.”

Since October last year, the BOC has flagged 11 companies over the balikbayan boxes that became the subject of the bureau’s investigation.

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So far, the BOC found that these companies were involved in fraudulent misdeclaration and undervaluation of goods, unauthorized deconsolidation activities, outright smuggling, non-declaration of commercial goods, importation of prohibited and regulated items, and intellectual property rights violations.

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Of the 11 erring cargo firms, six had been charged, including the complaint that the BOC filed against Makati Express Cargo Inc. (MECI) on May 29.

BOC deputy chief of staff Cris Bendijo, in the same press briefing, explained that only three more cargo forwarders would be charged within the next two weeks, as the two other companies pleaded that they were merely “victimized” by foreign consolidators, or firms that receive the packages from OFWs abroad.

“The two (companies) filed a (motion for reconsideration) and through our administrative processes, we were also able to determine that they were just victims… To be fair, our position was to not hold them accountable for actions done by consolidators abroad,” said Bendijo.

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For the rest of the companies, the BOC is also poised to file other charges, such as large-scale estafa and cybercrime law violations, on top of the CMTA violations. /dp