{"id":59800,"date":"2015-08-24T21:35:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T13:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=59800"},"modified":"2015-08-24T21:35:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T13:35:43","slug":"aquino-orders-customs-establish-defined-protocol-to-inspect-balikbayan-boxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/08\/24\/aquino-orders-customs-establish-defined-protocol-to-inspect-balikbayan-boxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Aquino orders Customs: ‘Establish defined protocol’ to inspect balikbayan boxes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Benigno Aquino III (Malacanang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — In a Philippine Daily Inquirer report released Monday night, President Benigno Aquino III gave written instructions to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) regarding the physical inspection of\u00a0balikbayan\u00a0<\/em>boxes from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).<\/p>\n

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima shared the President’s instructions in an interview with the INQUIRER, saying that the BOC should “establish a more defined protocol” when it comes to thwarting smugglers who are allegedly using\u00a0balikbayan\u00a0<\/em>boxes to sneak commercial goods into the country.<\/p>\n

Aquino gave the following orders to the BOC:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • No random physical inspection of balikbayan<\/em> boxes;<\/li>\n
  • Use x-rays and K9 units to scan and inspect all\u00a0balikbayan\u00a0<\/em>boxes;<\/li>\n
  • OFWs sending\u00a0balikbayan\u00a0<\/em>boxes will not shoulder inspection costs;<\/li>\n
  • A more thorough, physical inspection is only needed if any suspicious content is identified after scanning the box;<\/li>\n
  • An\u00a0Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) representative must be present during the actual physical inspection of said box\/es.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    The President’s order encourages everyone with proof of any mishandling or theft of\u00a0balikbayan\u00a0<\/em>boxes and its contents to present said pieces of evidence to Customs Commissioner Alberto ‘Bert’ Lina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    MANILA — In a Philippine Daily Inquirer report released Monday night, President Benigno Aquino III gave written instructions to the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":59801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","mauthors-ching-dee","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}