Alleged smuggled cars in PASG office cannibalized?

CEBU - Some of the allegedly smuggled vehicles under the custody of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group-Central Visayas appeared to be “cannibalized” during the ocular inspection conducted by Regional Trial Court Branch 9 Judge Geraldine Faith Econg at the Cebu International Port yesterday. 

From the first 16 of the 18 vehicles that were reported in the first inventory made by Branch 9 clerk of court Chevin Vasquez, the vehicles were already in complete number yesterday.

There were 18 vehicles parked adjacent to the PASG office, but some vehicles were found to have already lost their tires and stereos. Some have either broken windshields or lost engines, and that all have already lost their plate numbers.

One of the employees of SongPa Motors Chang Ho Han told Econg that some of the cars still have their spare parts intact, but during the inspection the said parts were discovered to be missing. 

In one of the cars that were inspected, a Red Kia Sedan, some bottles of beer were found inside the car and that a window was removed.

Econg decided to inspect the vehicles herself after the conflicting accounts of resigned PASG deputy director Ricardo Collantes and the inspecting group led by Vasquez last November 9.

Vazquez said that during the inventory, they only accounted nine vehicles that have the exact registered chassis number.

She said the five others were locked and could not be opened. Two other vehicles did not have the exact chassis number and that two of the vehicles were allegedly missing.

Collantes, through his lawyer, Leslie Salva explained that the vehicles were still in PASG-7 custody because a representative of the owner had been asking them not to turn over the vehicles to the Bureau of Customs because the owner was still in the process of gathering documents to prove that the vehicles entered the country legally.

Collantes, who took over as PASG-7 chief on October 22 when PASG-7 chief Ariel Palcuto was relieved from the post, earlier filed a motion to transfer custody of the seized vehicles from PASG-7 to the BOC.

Salva said his client wanted these vehicles immediately transferred to the BOC so that proper proceedings could be made because until now no supporting documents were submitted to the PASG-7 office to prove that the importation of the vehicles was legal. – Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)