Junkyard for pricey cars

With his mind made up already, President Rodrigo Duterte is bent to destroy tomorrow several luxury vehicles that were smuggled into the country to avoid payment of duties and other taxes. These are literally “hot cars” that were seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) last year but which their “fake” consignees did not show up nor contested the confiscation. 

The seized luxury vehicles reportedly include high-end branded sports cars from McLaren to Lamborghini, and Ferrari smuggled through various ports in the country. These very expensive sports cars illegally brought into the country as misdeclared cargoes no longer surprise nor shock us in disbelief.

The smuggling of these luxury vehicles has been going on ever since and apparently has not stopped up to now.

The Chief Executive’s latest policy declaration was made before the gathering of Indigenous People’s Summit held at the Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command headquarters at Camp Panacan last Thursday night. Speaking anew in extemporaneous remarks – interspersed in Visayan dialect, Tagalog and English – the President made sure everyone understood him.

The President swore he would no longer allow the auction of smuggled luxury cars as practiced in the past.

Under the Customs and Tariff Code of the Philippines, seized items like motor vehicles are auctioned off after going through legal process and period of time of determining violations of the laws and for the consignees to contest seizure, and for them to pay penalties/fines and the correct amount of duties and taxes.

“Consignee fake news, fake name, fake address…Your style is you wait for one year and six months and then these are put on auction wherein you are also the one who buy them. In that way, if these are auctioned, then the importation of these luxury vehicles already becomes legal,” the President explained how this “racket” has been going on at the Customs Bureau. 

It has come to the President’s attention after Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña showed him photos of the seized luxury vehicles, one of which included a 2012 Lamborghini Gallardo intercepted from container vans that originated from China, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.

 “You watch your money. I will bulldoze them on Tuesday,” the President addressing this warning to face-less owners of the smuggled luxury cars. President Duterte refers to his scheduled attendance tomorrow at the 116th anniversary celebration of the BOC head office in Port Area, Manila.

Whatever negative public reaction to the planned destruction of these very expensive imported but smuggled luxury vehicles would elicit, the President made it clear he intends to ignore it but he will proceed with it.

In a press conference in Ilocos Norte the next day, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque disclosed there are at least 70 luxury cars being prepared to be “bulldozed” simultaneously. But as we gathered from Customs, their inventory showed only 30 vehicles were seized in five different ports, broken down as follows: nine from the Port of Manila; two from the Manila International Container Port (MICP); nine from the Port of Subic; seven from the Port of Davao; and, three from the Port of Cebu. 

The “hot cars” seized from Cebu and Davao would be destroyed simultaneously in their respective areas. All vehicles are classified as “used” except for at least three brand new vehicles, namely two units of brand new Toyota, and one brand new Mercedez Benz that were all confiscated at the Davao port.

Only those from Manila, MICP and Subic would be gathered and condemned in one site where the President wants to drive through himself the bulldozer at the Customs headquarters. Among to be ran over by a bulldozer include five used BMW cars, five Mercedez Benz, a Lexus, Corvette Stingray, Ford Explorer Base 3.5L, Jaguar Type S, Audi S5, and a 2012 model Jeep Wrangler.

While some of these luxury vehicles were declared as “used” cars already, just the same, these are still subject to payment of duties and taxes. But why should owners want to skirt payment of duties and taxes when they can afford to shell out so much money to acquire and import them here?

Former president Joseph Estrada during his shortened administration tried his own formula in solving these smuggling of luxury cars by distributing the seized – mostly sports utility vehicles (SUVs) – to his Cabinet members for their official use. However, affected smugglers rode on severe public criticisms against Estrada for allegedly depriving government coffers if these seized cars were sold in auction as ought to be done according to law.

The deposed president caved in to public criticisms and ordered the return of the SUVs back to Customs. In fairness to Estrada, P72 million was earned from auctions subsequently held by Customs during his last months in office.

These “professional” smugglers obviously continue to ply their illegal trade with impunity because they very well know they can get away with it. The apparatus of their nefarious smuggling trade apparently remains intact at the BOC along with the bag of magic tricks they use to go around with reforms and changes of one administration to another.

The tricks of the trade must therefore be crushed to smithereens. If it requires the use of bulldozers to do it, then let it be. Methinks though bulldozers alone are not enough. It must be followed through by massive clean-up of the Bureau. And to think, the Bureau of Customs has yet to recover public trust on how P6.4 billion worth of shabu have been spirited out of the ports under their very noses.

Cleaning up though of the Customs Bureau from its systemic corruption is like the Greek mythology of Hercules having to clean the Aegean stables. It has become an idiomatic expression to mean the accumulation of corruption or filth is almost beyond the power of man to remedy.

However, this racket at the Customs Bureau may finally see an end, at least for now. President Duterte vowed – in his usual tough words – to crush pricey smuggled luxury cars into junkyard pieces.