Last October 23, 2015, I have sent my box to the Philippines using USPS. In the box were several items that I wanted to give my mom.  I have declared, if not all, most of them. I have definitely declared the important items and the ones that are most valuable.  Along with it is a used cellphone that I have used here in the US for a year.  Since I have received a gift of a new phone, I thought of giving it to my mom.  According to the USPS tracking number, the international parcel arrived in the Philippines on November 7, 2015 and was cleared by the Bureau of Customs (Philippines) on November 9, 2015.  My mom had just received the box today, November 16, 2015.  To our dismay, we have found that the said phone was missing.  This was the first time that the box was delivered at my mom's door step and had my Aunt sign for it. Normally, when I have mailed boxes in the past using USPS and the local post office, they would notify my mom to pick up the box from the local post office.  This was something peculiar.  So my mom then went to the office to report the missing item.  My mom had filed a formal complaint.  This is not the first time that something like this has happened in the Philippines.  I am very disappointed and deeply saddened that my gift was not received by my mom.  If there are taxes that needed to be paid, my mother will be more than happy to pay it since she is a law abiding citizen and so am I.  I am very appalled that this is still constantly happening.  We, Filipinos, who live abroad send gifts to our loved ones in the Philippines, to share our blessings (even if it's just a used item).  We know that our loved ones in the Philippines appreciate and treasures what we send them. It costs a lot of money to send boxes to the Philippines.  But we still do them because we love our family and we want to be able to give them gifts.  Money is somehow safer and faster. But gifts are more thoughtful. Sometimes, it takes months for an OFW to fill up a whole box before sending them to the Philippines.  This is a constant struggle for us living abroad.  We do not dispute their right to inspect our boxes. But when items start to vanish in thin air even when it's declared on the manifest, that urges a great concern for people like me.  I do believe that many people, both in the Philippines and abroad, will join me in this petition.  I have spent some time looking in the BOC website and their FAQs but I didn't see any place for people to complain about missing items.  If they really care, shouldn't there have been an allotted place for it on their website? If there was, it wasn't easy to find because I never found it.  Also, they have a facebook page that caters to the complaints. I've seen complaints there but no responses.  If they did respond to them why is there no "publicly posted responses" for us to be able to read that they are actually doing something about it.  This has been happening for years.  We are all fed up by this.  But we cannot do anything being so far away from our home country.  Please help investigate on who is responsible for our missing items.  How can we get them back? How can we get compensated for our missing items?  Please hold the people responsible accountable.  Please help us put the trust in BOC back.  Please find the people responsible for opening our boxes and taking what is not theirs.  They were for our families. Those items were not intended for them.  Please help us in being able to send our packages to our families with ease and peace of mind that they will get them. 

We urge you Ms. Santiago, to please speak on our behalf. Be our voice. Please. Give us hope. Give us hope that we can still trust our representatives to be our voice. To seek justice and to find the light.  We are hopeful that this will not fall on deaf ears so that we can be heard.  Thank you for your time and we hope that you can do something about it. Thank you.