GMA to lead destruction of P100-M smuggled luxury vehicles

President Arroyo will lead the destruction today of smuggled luxury and sports cars worth at least P100 million at the Subic Bay Freeport.

The destruction of the cars will push through despite strong lobbying by some groups to auction the vehicles instead to raise revenues for the government.

Yesterday, there were reports that the destruction of some 17 smuggled luxury vehicles and sport cars would not push through owing to inclement weather and some legal impediments.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves and Trade Secretary Peter Favila on Tuesday met with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Sergio Apostol to make sure that there would be no legal problems arising from Mrs. Arroyo’s order to destroy the vehicles.

“We have given her our legal opinion that in accordance with the Tariff and Customs Code, smuggled goods are contraband which can be summarily destroyed. Besides, the importer on paper was just a dummy for whoever really smuggled these vehicles,” Apostol said.

Mrs. Arroyo last week said auctioning the vehicles, which were apprehended by the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), would only allow the importers or smugglers to obtain the cars again.

Among the vehicles to be destroyed are a Lincoln Escalade, three BMW X5s, an Astro Van, an Audi 80, a BWM 3 series sedan, a Pajero, two Nissan Terranos, three Hyundai Grandeurs, a Toyota Estima and a Nissan Serena.

Presidential Management Staff head Cerge Remonde and PASG chief Undersecretary Antonio Villar said Mrs. Arroyo will not give in to lobbying or calls from lawmakers to auction the vehicles.

“The President has already said these will be destroyed. She is not one to go back on her word,” Remonde said.

He said the government is actually going to generate more revenues in the long run since the move would deter smuggling.

Villar said the 17 vehicles are part of the 400 vehicles being monitored in Subic that are believed to have been smuggled into the country.

The PASG chief said the vehicles are being smuggled into the country with the help of corrupt customs, Subic and land transportation organization officials.

He said he is often being pressured by top government officials and even some of his relatives to help them facilitate the release of some imported items without paying taxes.

He said smugglers of luxury vehicles accounted for a large part of those hundreds of millions of pesos in revenues that could have gone into government coffers.

Meanwhile, a Metro Manila congressman warned the Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday that it might not be legal to destroy more than 10 luxury cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) confiscated at the Subic Freeport.

Valenzuela City Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo II, who was a BOC official during the Ramos administration, said destruction of seized vehicles is not the proper way to dispose of contraband under the Customs and Tariff Code.

“The only proper way to dispose of these vehicles is for Customs to forfeit them in favor of the government and then auction them,” he said. – With Jess Diaz