Auction smuggled cars for revenue, GMA urged

The chairman of the House ways and means committee urged President Arroyo yesterday to reconsider her order for the immediate destruction of smuggled vehicles that the Bureau of Customs has impounded.

Instead of reducing these luxury cars to a heap of scrap metal, Rep. Exequiel Javier of Antique said the vehicles should be sold through public bidding to generate additional money for the cash-strapped national treasury.

He said there is a procedure in the Customs and Tariff Code for the sale of seized smuggled vehicles to the highest bidders.

“The auction for these vehicles should be done in a transparent manner. The consignees and importers should not be allowed to participate, otherwise, they will just take advantage of the process to circumvent the law, which is what the President wanted to avoid,” he said.

He added that after the Customs commissioner forfeits the smuggled vehicles in favor of the government, he can already schedule their auction.

The presidential anti-smuggling task force headed by former town mayor Antonio Villar recently confiscated several luxury cars inside the Subic Freeport, including late-model Porches, BMWs and Ferraris.

The confiscation apparently embarrassed officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), which has its own anti-smuggling team led by retired Maj. Gen. Jose Calimlim, who is also a member of the SBMA board of directors.

The President wants the seized vehicles destroyed so these would not end up in the hands of their consignees and importers.

In many cases, consignees and importers just pay the taxes and duties levied on their cars by Customs if these are seized.

Subic, where there are several companies authorized to bring in used equipment and vehicles, has become a favorite port of entry for smugglers. Another smugglers’ port of entry of choice is Port Irene inside the special economic zone in Sta. Ana, Cagayan.