LBC balikbayan drugs eluded tight U.S. check

The recent busting of a shipment of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu from Southern California, packed inside four LBC balikbayan boxes, has raised questions about the vaunted American border control.

The Bureau of Customs (BoC) intercepted the shipments last July based on its own intelligence work in coordination with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The absence of American information on the smuggled substances alarmed the BoC, prompting Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno to call the attention of the US government.

Nepomuceno asked the US Department of Homeland Security to send their representatives to meet with him.

“US Homeland Security officials have committed to working closely, especially against illegal drugs. They will help the BoC. We will regularly have coordination meetings, information sharing, and technology support,” Nepomuceno said.

Nonetheless, questions lingered about the procedures in the US for outbound freight, given the strict controls on goods entering the country.

Nepomuceno said that while balikbayan boxes are a highly political subject, the shipments used for smuggling shabu changed things.

“What we did, I ordered those boxes to be stripped because they contained drugs, based on the info. Those balikbayan boxes are from LBC, a huge company. And it turned out, after confirmatory testing by the PDEA, the 32 boxes contained shabu,” he said.

Consolidators — logistics companies like the Araneta-owned LBC Express — thrive on the balikbayan box trade, serving the large Filipino community in the United States.

Nepomuceno, who is giving the company the benefit of the doubt, nonetheless said it should enhance its operations and invest in advanced X-ray technology to prevent prohibited items, including illegal drugs, from being inserted in the packages.

“They should tighten operations in their consolidation areas abroad. They must invest in X-rays,” Nepomuceno said.

The BoC maintains an extensive list of accredited cargo forwarders handling consolidated balikbayan box shipments across the country’s ports. LBC is one of the accredited consolidators and deconsolidators of the BoC.

Meanwhile, Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Ramon Monzon said the bourse has sought clarification from publicly-listed LBC but added that the details of the communication cannot be disclosed.

“Since it is just a request for clarification, I think this correspondence cannot be made public due to data privacy laws. If official action is taken against LBC, the same must be disclosed and become public knowledge,” Monzon said.

Meeting sought

After DAILY TRIBUNE published its banner story, “LBC’s balikbayan boxes hid US meth,” Nepomuceno told this paper that LBC asked for a meeting to set the record straight.

Various public relations practitioners and mediators have also tried to mediate the matter, asking the TRIBUNE to “take down” the online version of the story.

Asked to comment, LBC Express’ corporate communications team declined to issue a statement at this time.

“Our company will send out an email to DAILY TRIBUNE confirming the inaccuracies in the article provided,” the LBC Express team said.

LBC Express Holdings Inc., operator of LBC Express, told the Philippine Stock Exchange that it had swung back to profit, posting a P181.3-million net income in the first half of this year after suffering losses in the same period in 2024. In 2024, the company reported a net loss of P190.9 million.

Valuable domestic intelligence work

The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service earlier reported that the contraband, flagged on 13 June, was consigned to importer XYZ Global Express under broker Michelle Mae Salarda. Declared as household goods and personal effects, it arrived in the Philippines on 6 June aboard the OOCL UTAH 075W.

The BoC said samples were immediately extracted and submitted to the PDEA for confirmatory testing. Laboratory results confirmed the substance was methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

DAILY TRIBUNE contacted the US Customs and Border Protection Media Relations but received an automatic reply saying they had received the inquiry and would respond later.