THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) admitted Thursday that it has not recorded a single balikbayan box sent to the country by migrant Filipinos that contained either smuggled firearms or drugs.
At the Senate inquiry into balikbayan box inspections, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. asked the BOC if it has recorded cases where balikbayan boxes were being used as conduit for smuggling.
"How many balikbayan boxes have you opened that contained arms or drugs?" Marcos asked, in reference to BOC's earlier pronouncements that balikbayan boxes are being used to smuggle drugs and firearms.
BOC Deputy Commissioner Jessie Delosa told Marcos that so far, the agency found nothing but commercial goods.
"So far, it's negative… There's no case (that balikbayan box is being used to smuggle firearms and drugs," Delosa said.
Last August, BOC's plan to implement random inspection of balikbayan boxes was met with widespread disapproval from the OFWs and their families, prompting President Benigno Aquino III to step in.
Aquino ordered to stop its implementation to douse public outrage.
During the hearing, Marcos quizzed Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina about his basis in implementing the inspection of balikbayan boxes.
Lina said he received some reports, which came from "different calls," that balikbayan boxes will be used for the arms and drug smuggling.
Asked by Senate ways and means committee chairman Juan Edgardo Angara if the calls he had received came from intelligence group, Lina simply said the information he obtained came from "safe calls."
"If I was a competitor of somebody, I will say that my competitor is smuggling guns and drugs to ruin his life. That (calls you receive) doesn't mean that it's true. It's just a call. That doesn't mean a thing. You have to investigate to prove, at least to yourself, that this is what’s happening," Marcos told Lina.
"I was expecting you will give me some numbers but apparently, it's even less than I thought – it is zero, zero balikbayan boxes have ever been found to contain drugs and arms. It feels arbitrary," he added.
Former BOC commissioner Ruffy Biazon said at the hearing that during his time as BOC head, there have been apprehensions and seizures of firearms through balikbayan boxes.
He cited the infamous case of a US-based gunrunning syndicate that was caught regularly sending firearms to the Philippines.
(Video by Ruth Abbey Gita/Sunnex)
Apology
In same hearing, Marcos reiterated his call for Lina to issue a public apology to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were offended by the BOC's random inspection of balikbayan boxes.
Susan Ople, advocate of OFWs' rights, backed Marcos and said public apology is important to Filipino migrant workers because their reputation has been discredited after the agency implemented such policy.
Ople said Lina's apology would correct what the agency has done wrong.
Marcos, for his part said: "I am happy that you have retracted this policy. But when are you going to apologize to the OFWs? When are you going to admit your mistake?"
"(Lina, you can tell OFWs) we care for you, we value you. We are not trying to harass you. We are not accusing you of being smugglers. We are trying to do our job but we went to the wrong path. As easy as that and I think it will be appreciated by OFWs," the senator said.
Lina in the end issued his public apology to OFWs.
"I'm also one of them but we were misinterpreted. They are not the ones I'm referring to. To whom I'm referring to are those who are using the names of OFWs," Lina said.
"I am sorry if we have degraded them. We don't want to degrade OFWs. I give my 200 (percent) support for them.”
Angara said Lina's apology was not enough and said that reforms in the current Customs law are needed.
"(Lina's apology) is not enough. Commissioner Lina was humbled when he said sorry but what's important is the policy that will give importance to the OFWs," Angara told reporters after the hearing. (Sunnex)