The House of Representatives is urged to craft a law that will regulate the country’s freight and courier services.
At a budget deliberation for the proposed 2020 national government budget, Information and Communication Secretary Gringo Honasan made the appeal to legislators as he voiced concern over reports that unscrupulous foreign couriers have resorted to using modern information and communications technology to victimize many Filipinos, specifically overseas workers.
Honasan said the proliferation of illegal and unlicensed foreign couriers has also started to put legitimate freight and courier service companies in an unfair situation of competing against unregulated and fly-by-night operators.
“The issue here: They are not only transporting goods but people, so we want regulatory intervention through a legislation first. Then an efficient and effective enforcement of the new law shall follow, and also an effective executive action,” Honasan told reporters at the sidelines of the plenary deliberations for the next year’s General Appropriations Bill.
Lawmakers earlier had said that fly-by-night freight and courier service operators have raked in billions of pesos through smuggling, thus putting their victims in trouble with the law.
One of them, Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza, said the risk of OFWs being tagged as smugglers was a cause for alarm and thus the need for measures to regulate the freight and courier service industry.
“Customers who fall prey to illegal firms also face the risk of being accused of tax evasion,” he added.
Atienza earlier called on concerned government agencies to look into alleged unscrupulous freight and courier service companies that are allegedly operating without proper license.
Atienza specifically named some of these companies: Ninja Express which is reportedly owned by Ninja Logistics PTE, LTD—a Singaporean corporation. Another company, J&T, is a forwarder reportedly licensed by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Civil Aeronautics Board but reportedly has no DICT approval to render domestic courier services.
A company called Black Arrow Express is reportedly licensed to operate in Metro Manila but has allegedly extended its operations to Cebu and Leyte.
Given this, Honasan said there is a need for Congress to craft permanent set of regulations to address the problem.
“We need a new law to address these problems.. and that by having a new law we will have a long term policy on this issue,” Honasan said.