To the Bureau of Customs & Alberto Lina

Today, I was angered by the news being discussed by one of my colleagues. It has something to do with Bureau of Customs (BOR) most specifically the Balikbayan Box that Overseas Filipino Worker's (OFW). The BOR headed by the recent appointed Alberto Lina who on his own has issues of corruption prior to his owned businesses which has a direct benefits on the in and out of the customs. I don't understand why the President have appointed a secretary whose credibility are stinking underneath the outer layer of his so called cleanliness and transparency.

Okay, as the news broke out. There was a random inspection being made by the BOR on the freight & forwarders warehouses. On the video, theyre opening each boxes and discussing about the proposed added taxes on the items that they have seen inside. 

They further claim that the government is loosing millions of revenue due to this untaxed balik bayan boxes which the OFW's have eagerly saved using their sweats and hardships. 

They say they it is being abused by the OFW. How come it is being abused? There is a few to every boxes that we are sending. I believe keeping those boxes non taxable is a small token of gift from the government in exchange of being a slave working in another foreighn land. 

OFW provide remittance on a monthly basis, they are being charge for a fee and also upon receipt in the Philippines which charge another Php100 pesos. Isn't that enough assistance straight from our salaries? We are fighting the emotional home sickness being abroad for the sake of our families and this balikbayan boxes has been a facet for ofw to provide assistance directly to each of our famile and now the head of BOR are taking that away and putting us a great burden of additional taxes?

For the BOR, have you ever resolved the issue for the Garbage from Canada that you have taken with open arms? Those are more than 10 BIG CONTAINERS  of other countries garbage. It is now decomposing on our land in Tarlac. Why didn't you made any effort to return that back? You've let it entered in our ports  and reprimand when its too late. Why kind of leadership is that?

How about those smuggled sugar from China? Smuggled Cars and for god sake smuggled fake rice, have already entered in our local market. You have a lot of unresolved issues on your own backyard yet you are targetting us OFW to squeeze out for some more taxes? Wow. 

You have the guts to say that if ever after opening the boxes and something had been missing we can report it to your office. Really? Its hard to believe those sugar coated words because we could smell the strong corruption going on in the customs. 

Sometimes we ask, what else could the government could provide that we could be proud of, atleast somehow have mercy. We're carrying lots of burden already and by taking those balikbayan boxes which we hardly couldn't filled up and taking us one to three months to filled in.