House probe sought on courier industry
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:15:16 +0000
THE courier and freight business in the Philippines has become a R36-billion industry, linked to the growth of on-line sales in the country, which in turn is part of the booming worldwide online shopping market.
This global online shopping market is predicted to hit $4 trillion in 2020, with the United States consumers leading the worldwide trend, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, China, Russia, and Brazil. The rest of the world, including the Philippines, is quickly following the trend of online shopping for such goods as smartphones, clothes, and household supplies.
The trend in the Philippines, however, has given rise to the problem of proliferation of illegal and unlicensed foreign couriers serving the industry. The Citizens Crime Watch (CCW) said it has received numerous complaints of lost packages, misdeliveries, and non-deliveries by many services which do not have the necessary licenses and permits from the government
During the last deliberations in Congress on the national budget, Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza asked Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) Secretary Gregorio Honasan to look into the operations of these couriers, which are dependent on online connectivity in their operations
CCW National President Diego Magpantay and Chief Legal Counsel Ferdinand Topacio said the DICT issued a warning against unregistered companies but, they said, nothing concrete has been done to shut them down. There are labor laws that are being blatantly ignored, they said, such as those on wages, health benefits, and social security for personnel. “There are also reports that colorum couriers, wittingly or unwittingly, have been tapped to deliver drugs and other contraband by criminal syndicates.”
Records of the DICT show that there are now 1
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