Here’s a warning to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who plan to send big ticket items like vehicles back to the Philippines: always declare these items. If you don’t, you not only have to pay huge fines and also the corresponding taxes needed, you can even go to jail!
This is what a balikbayan could now face after he sent cargo to a consignee named Efrell Lopez in the Philippines. The container van was declared to contain various household goods and personal effects but X-ray inspection revealed that aside from these items, there were also three motorcycles and one car in this shipment!
By not declaring the vehicles in the shipment, the OFW was able to save a lot of money in taxes and shipping fees but now faces charges filed by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for ‘technical smuggling’.
If proven guilty, the OFW could be jailed from three up to six years, said Customs Deputy Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno.
BOC officials now urge OFWs to properly declare their shipments, if they don’t want to get in trouble with the law.
“Ignorance of the law excuses no one. Babala po sa ating mga kababayan, ‘yung mga returning residents, na bago po tayo magparating ng mga ganung bagay, alamin muna talaga nating mabuti. Nandito naman po yung Customs para mapagtanungan ninyo anu-ano yung mga requirements,” said Jaybee Cometa, head of BOC’s X-Ray Inspection Project.
Watch the report here: