Bleak Christmas, no thanks to BOC

Instead of  insisting on opening up and levying taxes on the so-called balikbayan boxes, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) should straighten its priorities by going after the real big-time smugglers of rice, onion, garlic, etc.

For one, there’s no real data to back up BOC’s claim that about P50 million in taxes is lost allegedly because highly dutiable goods are being shipped by unscrupulous forwarders using the balikbayan boxes. Where did they get that figure? From thin air?

And if some forwarders are to blame, why not clamp down on them and their protectors at the BOC via honest-to-goodness intelligence work? Why make ordinary Filipinos abroad and their families in the Philippines suffer? Why throw the baby along with the bathwater?

On the other hand, there’s real, hard and recurring data that billions and billions of pesos are being lost by the government from real smuggling, including oil transported by barges. The billions of pesos in revenues would not be lost if BOC is really doing its job.

Naturally, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and balikbayans are up in arms and are very angry at the BOC because the boxes whose contents they work hard for are being exposed by BOC to pilferage by its employees and inspectors.

So many viral videos are floating in the Internet showing the theft of the contents of parcels done by some Customs and Philpost personnel. That’s even before this newfound zeal by BOC to go after the balikbayan boxes.

With the order to open the balikbayan boxes, the BOC all but declared an open season to its “trustworthy” personnel as far as depriving OFWs and balikbayans and their families of their hard-earned money is concerned.

So is this how the OFWs who remit about US$24 billion a year are being repaid by the government? By making them look like they’re smugglers and by taking away the fruits of their labor sent to their families through the balikbayan boxes? This would be a bleak Christmas indeed for our so-called New Heroes. -End-

Image by: Regino Lancion