MANILA: Philippines Customs the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced that it has blacklisted 43 freight forwarders over complaints from shippers and consignees for non-delivery of balikbayan boxes.
Customs Commissioner John P. Sevilla (middle), Trade Undersecretary Victorio Dimagiba (left) and BOC Division Chief Athena Dans inspect balikbayan boxes that are awaiting clearance and release at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in December 2014.
The Christmas season is over and yet you are still waiting for your gift-filled balikbayan box? Chances are, your box was mishandled by an errant freight forwarder.
DTI Undersecretary Victorio Mario Dimagiba said 54 other foreign freight forwarders/consolidators from Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East, and the United States have pending complaints pertaining to undelivered balikbayan boxes and are currently being investigated.
Dimagiba said complaints arise when balikbayan boxes are undelivered to customers. These are mostly attributed to the failure of foreign consolidators or principal sea freight forwarders to remit all or a portion of their collected charges to their accredited Philippine agents or local sea freight forwarders to facilitate the timely release and delivery of balikbayan boxes.
“When necessary funds are not remitted to accredited Philippine agent or local freight forwarders, the shipment of the balikbayan boxes with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) will not be released and will not be delivered to consignees or recipients,” Dimagiba said.
DTI records showed that some incidents of undelivered balikbayan boxes involved freight forwarding companies with accreditation, Dimagiba added.
Dimagiba said DTI has aleady revoked the accreditation of D’Winner Logistics Philippines Incorporated and Globalnet International Freight Incorporated. In addition, the DTI is seeking to revoke the accreditation of Steadfast Air-Sea International Incorporated together with its licensed customs broker, Victorino C. Guilles Jr.
A complete list of errant foreign and local sea freight forwarders is available on the DTI website.
The DTI implements an accreditation scheme for sea freight forwarding companies to ensure standards while guarding against companies that engage unscrupulous activities. The past year has seen the shipping industry beset by problems, including port congestion and smuggling of imported goods, such as rice, steel, and wood.
“The accreditation scheme helps professionalize the freight forwarding industry, and the DTI will continue to strictly implement its criteria to weed out those companies that are not qualified to engage in this business,” Dimagiba said.
As of January 2015, DTI has accreditated 664 sea freight forwarders, of which 57 are also engaged in handling balikbayan box shipments.
