G.A. Viray
Our country has over 2.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) which remits over 120 billion pesos according to the Philippine Statistical Authority. Among the millions of OFWs working abroad, Saudi Arabia has the largest number with about 2.22 million. With the billions of pesos being remitted to the OFWs families, hundreds of remittance companies have already proliferated. But, how secure are these remittance companies?
An OFW from Saudi Arabia with an alias of Camille complained to ABS-CBN about a remittance she lost. The remittance, which was worth over P16,000, was sent last December 2014. Unfortunately, it was bogus who claimed it instead of her husband.
At the time Camille sent the money to her husband, Cebuana Lhuillier’s system went offline. She then inquired through Cebuana Lhuillier’s Facebook page about the remittance.
A certain Cebuana Cares employee replied to her inquiries asking for information about the transaction. Trusting that the person she chatted will be able to help her, she divulged the information she has about the transcation.
Unfortunately, however, Camille’s husband was not able to claim her remittance anymore. It was later found out that the person she chatted with is a bogus and her remittance was claimed at JGLC Remittance which is a domestic partner of Palawan Express. An ID was presented to the remittance company and her husband’s name was used to claim the money.
Cebuana Lhuillier has already released a statement about the matter through ABS-CBN, stating that they will not be able to help Camille because the transaction was not processed in Cebuana Lhuillier.
Furthermore, JGLC also said in their official statement that JGLC was able to observe due diligence before releasing the remittance to the claimant as the latter was able to present a valid ID.
On a final note, it was stated in the report that Camille still has a chance to get her money back since she already filed a complain. However, the damage has been done. Who do you think is accountable for the incident? Leave a comment below.
Kawawa naman c Ate Camille, ung pinadala nyang pera pra sa family nya nawala lang ng ganun dhil close/offline ang cebuana nakuha 2loy ng iba!!! Kung cnu nmn nka chat ni ate Camille, May konsensya kpa ba?
Since all these remmittance centers like cebuana lhuilier,palawan express,m lhulier etc.just receive the remmittance abroad, so much agencies in different countries also exist.We donot know which center the money was sent.Several times this happened to me and i couldnt get the money ahead..I have to call,send messeges to the sender and it freak me out.Locally,they have to give us full assistance regarding this matter.
It should be return to the sender double the amount that has been lost
Kawawa c ate.. no offense pero ndi xa dpt nag transact ng gnun.. pwd nman cguro idelay ung padala.. or wait till cebuana’s system are online again.. marami na po bogus lalo na sa panahon ngaun.. advice lang wag bsta magtitiwala sa khit knino especially pag chat.. pero sana mabawa parin nya pera nya.. sobrang hirap kitain ang 16k, not to mention nsa abroad pa xa..
kawawa naman. malaking halaga din yan. mag open nlng ng bank account para derecho credit na sa acct ng beneficiaries nyo. so far, wala pa naman akong na experience na problema sa tuwing pinapadalhan ko mama ko sa bdo.
The reason why we doesn’t accept that bir id is because it doesn’t have any security features. I think the remittance center is the one accountable for that because they are the ones who processed the transaction. They should have been examined the ID first. In our world nowadays, many people has been doing fraud so we have to be very extra careful, not because they presented an id its already valid. And for all the benificiary, don’t blame the remittance centers of they asked more ids from you. It’s not that they doesn’t want to let you claim yout money, it’s only that they are wanting a safe transaction, also for your sake, it’s to avoid stories like this to happen again and again. Please understand them too as they too understand your situations. 🙂