Press Releases

One in seven incoming shipments that will be inspected by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) next year could be seized, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto said, citing the agency’s performance target for 2016. Recto said that in the proposed 2016 national budget, BoC stated as

The cat is out of the bag. The additional charge that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has imposed on a container of balikbayan boxes is now out in the open. First it has been confirmed that the amount of duties and taxes on a shipping container has been increased from P80,000 to

The House of Representatives approved yesterday the Senate-version of the PAGASA Modernization Bill, foreclosing any need to convene a Bicameral Conference Committee, and sending the bill to President Aquino’s desk, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto said today. Recto

Despite President Aquino’s order to the Bureau of Customs to stop inspections of balikbayan boxes, Sen. Ralph Recto said “outdated rules” on OFW-sent packages must be changed. “The order of the President is very laudable and time-on-target,” Recto said. “But what the OFWs want is

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph G. Recto is set to file a BBL – or Balikbayan Box Law – that will raise the tax-exempt value of the contents of a balikbayan box to $2,000 from the present $500. “If the Bureau of Customs (BOC) is insisting that it is just implementing existing

The chair of the Senate Finance Subcommittee reviewing the Bureau of Customs (BOC) budget said agency officials will be grilled on the status of non-intrusive inspection techniques, which could detect contraband goods without opening tens of thousands of balikbayan boxes sent

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has a budget of P3.2 billion this year. Last year, it collected P1.01 billion every day. This year it has revenue goal of P436.6 billion or P1.2 billion per day. With this amount of money, it can certainly pay for a CCTV system, or what we can call

Based on the 2016 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF), government “training and scholarship expenses” will jump from this year’s P27.12 billion to the proposed P32.75 billion for next year, a figure almost double of last year’s P17.51 billion. But Senate

I am looking forward to working with the youngest member of the Senate. With our agenda full, hard labor awaits him here.  With his experience, he can certainly enrich the discussions on the budget and the BBL. It is also worth noting that his liberty came on the 70th anniversary