J&T Express Philippines apologized for a video that recently went viral showing personnel mishandling parcels, and said it will cooperate with an investigation ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We appreciate the concern expressed by the President towards our customers’ welfare as well as the well-being of our many partners and employees,” J&T Express Philippines vice president Zoe Chi said in a statement.
“Furthermore, we will cooperate with the government in any investigation that it will conduct. We are committed to improving our services for the benefit of the public,” she added.
President Rodrigo Duterte, at a late night televised address on June 30, threatened to shut down the courier company if the probe by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police confirms reports of irregularities, including missing packages. He also ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue to look into J&T Express’ finances.
“As a courier, a company registered as a courier, I would like to — because of the so many complaints but I will close you down. Sigurado ‘yan sasarahan talaga kita (I’ll make sure to shut you down) whether you like it or not after the CIDG and the NBI would finish their investigation and would point a liability sa inyo (to you),” Duterte said.
A video surfaced online recently of the staff of the courier company, which handles mainly e-commerce shipments, throwing packages inside a truck.
In a press briefing on July 2, Chi apologized again for the incident and said they “humbly take full responsibility.”
J&T Express branding manager Leonardo Alampay, however, reiterated the incident is an isolated case and goes against company standards.
“The people involved in the video are on-call riders and sorters temporarily hired by the company. You can be assured that we won’t tolerate this kind of behavior and any future instances that might occur that are similar to this won’t be allowed to serve in the company,” Alampay said.
“We would also like to assure the public that this is an isolated case. All of our facilities, including our branches and warehouses across the country, are under 24/7 monitoring. We also follow strict protocols in handling the shipments and ensure that these are handled with proper care,” J&T Express said.
The personnel involved in the video have been identified and will be sanctioned, it added.
J&T Express is an express delivery company established in Indonesia in 2015 and has operations in various countries in South East Asia. J&T Express Philippines started operations in March 2019 and is accredited with the Department of Information and Communications, which has jurisdiction over postal and courier delivery service providers.
