PHLPost asks for patience amid months-long delays during ‘ber’ months

One year after the Department of Finance raised the de minimis—the value at or below which items may be shipped tax-free to the Philippines—to P10,000, the volume of online purchases of smaller items has also risen, according to a report by Ivan Mayrina on 24 Oras.

"Yung de minimis has played a very big role, especially doon sa mga e-commerce na packets na pumapasok, kasi alam natin na lahat ng pababa ng P10,000 are tax-free as long as it's not regulated and it's not of commercial quantity," Assistant Postmaster General Luis Carlos explained.

The upcoming holiday season also means an increase in the number of parcels handled by the post office and, therefore, a slowdown in processing by as much as a month's delay.

This means packages will be released only a month or more after they arrive in the Philippines.

The Quezon City Post Office, for instance, usually receives 25 to 27 bags' worth of parcels a month; this multiplies to 35 to 40 bags from September to December.

Each bag contains 500 parcels, all of which must be manually encoded to registry notices to allow recipients to claim them.

The post office typically receives the heaviest bulk of international packages from November to March.

Quezon City Postmaster General Rufino Robles apologized for the delays in processing packages from other countries, whether they are personal gifts from relatives or purchases from online stores.

"Nagkakaroon ng mga delay sa aming pagproseso dito. Hinihingi namin yung inyong pang-unawa," Robles said. — Rie Takumi/BM, GMA News