BOC eyes release of undelivered balikbayan boxes before Valentine’s Day

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is pushing to release undelivered balikbayan boxes of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) before Valentine’s Day despite challenges, an official said on Tuesday.

BOC Office of the Commissioner Deputy Chief of Staff Atty. Chris Bendijo said their personnel are conducting manual inventory of the boxes after deconsolidator firms did not provide a master list.

“Sa dami po talaga ng mga kahon, if you can imagine talaga pong paglabas ng container, manual na manual ang ginagawa natin, isa-isa po ini-imbentaryo 'yung laman nito kasi hindi nagbigay ng masterlist itong deconsolidators na kumpanya,” Bendijo told Dobol B TV in an interview.

(With so many boxes, if you can imagine, when we take out the container, we do it manually, making an inventory of its contents one by one because this deconsolidator company did not provide a master list.)

Pagpapadala ng balikbayan boxes sa Port of Manila, hindi na aabutin ng Valentine’s Day https://t.co/1vJ75D5Ngp

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) January 5, 2026

He explained that authorities must still identify the owners and addresses of each box before sorting them according to their destinations in Metro Manila and the provinces.

To speed up the release, Bendijo said Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno has instructed the agency to explore adding more logistics partners to speed up processing.

Bendijo appealed for patience from affected OFWs  as he expressed hope that the release will not extend beyond mid-February.

“So again, humihingi pa po tayo ng kaunting pasensya sa ating OFW. Kaunting panahon pa po. Talaga pong mahirap lang po talaga itong prosesong pinagdadaanan natin. Pero hopefully, hindi na po tayo umabot ng Valentine’s Day,” he said.

(So again, we ask for a little patience from our OFWs. We need a little more time. This process we're going through is really difficult. But hopefully, the release won't reach Valentine's Day.)

Bendijo noted that the bulk of the undelivered boxes are linked to Makati Express. 

He added that the BOC has already coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and assisted OFWs in filing complaints against the company.

“Ang pinakamaraming naiwan dito ay 'yung Makati Express po. Again magkakaroon pa po tayo ng isang follow-up with NBI kasi dinulog na natin ito sa kanila. Sinamahan natin ang mga OFWs para magsampa ng kaukulang reklamo,” Bendijo said.

(Most of the abandoned boxes here are under Makati Express. Again, we will have a follow-up with the NBI because we have already reached out to them. We accompanied the OFWs to file the appropriate complaint.)

He also disclosed that the company previously committed to compensate affected OFWs.

“Pero even 'yung pagpo-provide ng masterlist ay hindi pa po namin natatanggap. So hindi ko po alam kung ano ang kanilang hangarin. Pero hindi po maganda itong pagpapakitang ito dahil hindi po sila tumupad doon sa napag-usapan,” he said.

(But even the provision of the masterlist has not been received by us yet. So I don't know what their intentions are. But this action is not good because they did not fulfill what was discussed.)

Bendijo said the issue has been elevated to the Office of the President, noting that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. responded by immediately allocating funds.

He added that reforms are now being pursued to give the BOC greater oversight of deconsolidator firms.

“Talagang nagkakaroon na po tayo ng policy direction na magkakaroon din po ng accreditation ang BOC sa mga kumpanyang ito dahil sa kasalukuyan wala po tayong ganung regulating power,” Bendijo said.

(We are actually already having a policy direction that the BOC will also have accreditation for these companies because currently we do not have that kind of regulating power.)

“Magkakaroon pa ng mas maigting na measures at mga programa ang BOC para po sa ating mga OFWs nang sa ganun hindi na po maulit ang ganitong pagkakataon,” he said.

(The BOC will have even stricter measures and programs for our OFWs so that this kind of situation will not happen again.)

In December last year, Marcos said some balikbayan boxes that were left unattended for months would soon be returned to their rightful owners before Christmas.

More than 100,000 balikbayan boxes that had been in storage for years at the Port of Manila were finally being distributed to the families of OFWs as of December 18.—AOL, GMA Integrated News