Senator Lito Lapid recently distributed assistance to 640 families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) from across Metro Manila.
In a payout conducted Monday, March 18, by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and OFW Partylist in Ayala Malls Parañaque City, the beneficiaries received a total of P2 million from the agency’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) program.
In a speech during the payout distribution, Lapid said OFWs could be considered living heroes who sacrifice abroad for their loved ones.
The “Supremo” also thanked OFWs for their great contribution to the economy through their remittances.
Lapid earlier called for an investigation into the reported thousands of missing and abandoned balikbayan boxes of OFWs.
In his proposed Senate Resolution No. 950, Lapid asked the Senate leadership to immediately act on the problem since it is important to teach a lesson and punish delinquent foreign and local cargo forwarders who cheated on their customers.
Lapid said there should be immediate action on the complaints of OFWs by crafting laws to prevent a recurrence of similar incidents.
The senator was dismayed with these acts of cargo forwarding companies abroad and in the Philippines since it took up to two years before balikbayan boxes were delivered.
“This deliberatedly ignored the hard work and sacrifices of our OFWs in working abroad. The delays have also been causing ao many problems to the families of OFWs in the Philippines,” he said.
He noted several instances when canned goods were rotten and other cargoes were being destroyed.
Lapid said his office got reports from the Bureau of Customs last Jan. 25 that 16 cargo forwarders did not deliver the balikbayan boxes entrusted to them.
The BOC also reported that in 2023, 11 cases were files against 10 cargo forwarders due to failure to deliver, as they merely abandoned tons of baggages in several warehouses, stocked there from seven months to two years.
It was also reported that some cargoes of OFWs were put up for auction and sold by online sellers. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
