Republic of the Philippines HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Quezon City, Metro Manila SIXTEENTH CONGRESS “Third Regular Sesion 2315 HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. Introduced by BAYAN MUNA Representatives CARLOS ISAGANI T, ZARATE and NERI J. COLMENARES RESOLUTION DIRECTING THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON OVERSEAS WORKERS AFFAIRS ‘TO CONDUCT AN INVESTIGATION, IN AID OF LEGISLATION, ON THE POLICY OF THE BUREAU OF CUSTOMS MANDATING THE OPENING AND INSPECTION OF BALIKBAYAN BOXES TO CHECK SUPPOSED “SMUGGLING” BY OVERSEAS FILIPINO WORKERS WHEREAS, Commissioner Alberto Lina, head of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), had announced. that the agency is going to implement a stricter policy in the entry, inspection, clearance and release of balikbayan boxes (duty-free parcels containing various goods sentby Overseas Filipino Workers to their family and relatives back home), in which they will be opened and inspected for the presence of contraband goods before being released to thei intended recipients; WHEREAS, under the same policy, balzkbayan boxes found out to contain goods whose total estimated value exceeds Ten Thousand Pesos (PhP 10,000.00) shall be imposed regular customs duties and Value-Added Tax (VAT); WHEREAS, Commissioner Lina justified the policy measure to be “in line with the agency's mandate of preventing smuggling”, citing various instances of contraband goods entering the country through balikbayan boxes, and the alleged practice of some “unscrupulous” OFWs of purchasing appliances, electronic gadgets, luxury items, and other goods, to be re-sold in the Philippines; WHEREAS, contrary to the assertion of the Bureau of Customs that items inside balibhayar boxes, (which ace tax-free) ate often sold for setail by some OFWs, most of the contents of baliebayan boxes are items meant for the use/consumption of immediate family members and relatives, and that the sale of said items to a third party in the Philippines only occur in circumstances such as (leftover items which the family members do not want or intend to use, which are sold to interested buyers, eliminating wastage, and (2) items bought in fulfillment of informal “bin” ot “pakiowo” arrangements between migrant workers and their friends or acquaintances who are interested in purchasing goods abroad which are not easily available in the Philippines, and that the payment received by the sender is only to cover for the price of the item plus shipping charges; WHEREAS, the Bureau of Customs has the capability to implement strict yet reasonable methods in inspecting balikbayan boxes, such as (1) the mandatory labelling of said packages with a declaration of theie contents and (2) thorough scanning of said boxes with x-ray machines, climinating any need to tamper with the packaging to inspect the contents of said boxes;WHEREAS, countless complaints of balikbgan box senders and receivers about missing contents of daliéhayan boxes opened and inspected by the Bureau before their release show a repetitive pattern of pilferage which is up to now left unexplained by said agency; WHEREAS, this move of the Bureau of Customs, with the objective of ensuring proper and lawful tariff collection from imports and exports and preventing the entry of smuggled goods does not tally with their track record, including countless instances of unexplained large-scale entry of luxury items such as sports cars, fake rice, and garbage from overseas WHEREAS, OFWs complain that this is nothing more than discrimination and harassment of ‘OFWs who painstakingly save to gather ‘padalas’ for theit loved ones: © OFWs complain that while they are being singled out by BOC, many large container vans of big smugglers, tons of smuggled rice, even trash, and large taxpayers are allowed by BOC to go scot-frees According to Migrante, international carriers and business forwarders like LBC, are not only exempt from VAT and 3% carrier duties but also from stringent inspection measures while OFWs padala will be heavily inspected and taxed just because they are not big business carriers or forwarders; * A large budget was granted to BOC including funds for X-ray, sniffing dogs and other ‘equipment, such as P145 million to procure X-ray machines in 2013 but instead of using these equipment, BOC would rather waste time, personnel and effort to meticulously inspect balikbayan boxes. ‘This would only allow corrupt custom officials to further victimize our hapless OFWs; ‘© While Pres. Aquino supports the ASEAN integration by lowering tariff of imported products from ASEAN countries thereby forgoing billions of pesos in revenues, it seeks to collect revenues on OFWs to recover a supposed 600 million pesos loss due to smuggling. Matapos bansagang bagong bayani ng gobyerno ang mea OFW, ngayon naman ay smuggler Aung sila ay tratubin; © Lastly, this obsession of the Aquino administration to impose all kinds of taxes on the Filipino people is certainly unjust because public funds from taxpayers only go to pork barrel and other highly irregular Public Private Partnership and the P30 Billion Regulatory Risk Fund. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the House Committee on Overseas Workers ‘Affairs conduct an immediate investigation, in aid of legislation, on the Bureau of Customs policy mandating the opening of Balikbayan Boxes to check supposed smuggling by OFWs. Adopted, Th A ALL CARLOS Sscins T. ZARATE Bayan Muna Party-List