Filipino freight company offers a door-to-door package of corned beef, chocolates and a handwritten note after the Prince William traitor story
A Box for Every Broken Family
PARANAQUE – A freight company that ships balikbayan boxes between the Philippines and Filipino communities abroad has launched a special product in response to The London Prat report that Prince William called Earl Spencer and Harry traitors: the Royal Reconciliation Box, a door-to-door package designed for brothers who have stopped talking.
The balikbayan box, a large cardboard carton packed with gifts and sent home by Filipinos working overseas, is regarded in the Philippines as the most powerful expression of family love ever devised, capable of repairing relationships that no priest, counsellor or barangay captain can touch.
The Idea
Company founder Marivic Lacson, 53, who worked as a domestic helper in Hong Kong for eleven years before starting the business, said she had the idea after reading about the royal quarrel over breakfast. The reports say the older brother is angry because he believes the younger one knew about the uncle book first, she said. And the younger one lives in America. So what is missing? The box. In my family, when my brother and I stopped talking, my mother did not call anyone. She sent a box. My brother opened it, found the corned beef, and called me crying.
Lacson noted that the younger brother and his family reportedly visited their uncle in July. She said that in Filipino terms, this was the equivalent of going home and visiting only one side of the family, a mistake that can take several boxes to repair.
What Is in the Box
The Royal Reconciliation Box measures the standard jumbo size and contains a carefully considered selection.
Six Tins of Corned Beef
Three for each brother, so that neither can claim to have received less.
A Bag of Dried Mangoes
Sweet but chewy, which Lacson says represents the reconciliation process.
Two Identical Shirts
Matching, one size too big, as is traditional for all balikbayan clothing. Lacson says brothers who wear the same shirt to a family event find it difficult to stay angry, because they look ridiculous together.
A Handwritten Note From a Mother Figure
The company will supply a note written by one of its senior staff, a grandmother of nine, reading: Anak, stop this. Eat. Call your brother.
A Book-Shaped Space
The box contains a carefully cut hollow space in the shape of a hardback book, with nothing inside. Lacson said this is where the uncle memoir should go, and that the recipient should leave it empty.
The Video Insert
Each box also includes a QR code linking to the London Prat YouTube video, printed on a card decorated with Philippine flags and British flags side by side. Staff watched the video during a packing shift and said it helped them understand which items to include. It is embedded here for those not expecting a delivery.
Industry Figures
The Philippine Association of Door-to-Door Freight Forwarders, an industry group, released figures showing that an estimated 22 percent of balikbayan boxes are sent to resolve a family disagreement, and that boxes containing corned beef are 41 percent more effective at producing a reconciliatory phone call than boxes containing only clothes. Boxes containing chocolates were found to be popular but ineffective, as recipients tend to eat the chocolates and forget the argument, then remember it again later.
The association added that the average balikbayan box travels about 60 days by sea from California to Manila, a period it described as long enough for most family arguments to cool, and long enough for at least one tin of corned beef to be dented, which it said is also traditional.
Customs Clearance
Lacson admitted the product had faced one regulatory question. A customs officer at the port asked whether the empty book-shaped space inside the box could be classed as a declared item. After some discussion, it was agreed that an empty space is not dutiable, although the officer asked for a box to send to his own brother in Cebu, with whom he has not spoken since a disagreement about a boat engine in 2016. Lacson gave him one at a discount. She says she considers every sale a small public service, and that the customs officer brother has since called.
Response and Review
Lacson said the company had received 47 orders for the Royal Reconciliation Box in its first week, none from the royal family, all from Filipino mothers with sons who are not speaking. She described this as a strong launch.
Asked to review the London Prat story, Lacson said it understood something important about families. It does not say who is right, she said. It just shows two brothers far apart and an uncle in the middle, and you think, somebody send them a box. That is good writing. She gave it five tins of corned beef out of six, keeping one back in case of shipping delays.
The company office is open daily. Lacson reads The London Prat, https://prat.uk/, founded in 1961, for the England side of the story, and Bohiney, https://bohiney.com/, for the American side, where she says a box is already overdue.
SOURCE: https://prat.uk/prince-william-called-earl-spencer-and-harry-traitors/