THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) is working to release thousands of undelivered balikbayan boxes sent by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) before Valentine’s Day, despite logistical and documentation challenges, a BOC official said Tuesday.
BOC Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the Commissioner, Atty. Chris Bendijo said personnel are currently conducting a labor-intensive, manual inventory of the boxes after deconsolidator firms failed to submit a master list of shipments.
Bendijo explained that each box must be individually checked to identify its owner and delivery address before it can be sorted for distribution within Metro Manila or to provincial destinations.
To accelerate the process, Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno has directed the agency to consider tapping additional logistics partners to help fast-track the release of the shipments.
Bendijo appealed for patience from affected OFWs, expressing optimism that the distribution would be completed by mid-February and would not extend beyond Valentine’s Day.
Most of the undelivered boxes, he said, are linked to Makati Express. He added that the BOC has coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and assisted OFWs in filing formal complaints against the company.
Bendijo also revealed that Makati Express had previously committed to compensating affected OFWs but has yet to fulfill its obligations, including providing the required master list of shipments.
The issue has been elevated to the Office of the President, Bendijo said, noting that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. immediately allocated funds to address the problem.
In response to the incident, the BOC is now pushing for reforms that would give the agency stronger oversight over deconsolidator firms, including the implementation of an accreditation system to enhance regulation and accountability.
The BOC said it is also preparing stricter measures and programs to protect OFWs and prevent similar incidents in the future.
In December last year, President Marcos announced that balikbayan boxes left unattended for months would be returned to their rightful owners before Christmas.
As of December 18, more than 100,000 boxes that had been stored for years at the Port of Manila were already being distributed to OFW families.