Customs increases balikbayan boxes tariffs; OFWs protest hike anew

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MANILA – The Bureau of Customs (BoC) increased the duties imposed on containers carrying balikbayan boxes a month before Christmas season, angering overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) yet again.

Opposing the hike in levies on incoming cargos, OFW groups threatened the BoC of another protest. Migrant workers also demanded that Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina justify the duties adjustment.

“Commissioner Lina must see to it that he will use his ascendency and regulatory powers over cargo companies not to pass on the increase cost per container to the OFWs… Otherwise, the OFWs might pillory him once again,” Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares said in a Manila Bulletin report.

“The BoC may have its technocratic reasons for doing this and they may, after all, be valid. But that will not suffice to avert the emotional public response when it comes to these boxes,” he added.

It can be recalled that the BoC earlier received flak from OFWs who were against the bureau’s officials manually inspecting their balikbayan boxes as they feared pilferage of the contents. They then staged a ‘zero-remittance day’ as a protest to the inspection procedure.