House to probe luxury car smuggling in Batangas

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives will look into the smuggling of 14 luxury vehicles at the Port of Batangas on July 24.

A resolution filed by Valenzuela Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo 1, a vice chairman of the committee on ways and means, prompted the inquiry.

In Resolution No. 2269, Gunigundo said the cars, valued by the importer at P24 million, were about to be driven out of the Batangas port recently when Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel seized them for “gross undervaluation.”

He said the luxury vehicles were declared as one McLaren 450C, one Land Rover LR2, two Land Rover Defender 90s, two Mercedes Benz C200s, two Mercedes Benz GLK350s, one Toyota Prado, one 2015 Ferrari California, and four Toyota Land Cruiser GXs.

They were consigned to Monacat Trading, with address at Unit 2 Matic Building, National Highway, Barangay Canlalay in Biñan, Laguna, he said.

He added that based on the findings of the BOC, the vehicles were undervalued by an average of 24.09 percent.

Gunigundo pointed out that the importer of the 14 vehicles apparently declared them as older and lower-end models to avoid taxes.

“We noticed the model names of the cars were flat-out incorrect: Either they were those of lower models by the same brand, or those of lower (and obviously cheaper) variants,” he stressed.

Citing examples, he said the two Mercedes C200s were actually “a CG3 AMG and a CLK DTM AMG, which are definitely way more expensive than a regular C200.”

He said the Land Rovers that were declared did not include a more luxurious Range Rover, while one of the Toyotas was actually a “bullet-proof Land Cruiser, which is not your ordinary, straight-out-of-the-showroom LC.”

“And what about the McLaren? Upon checking the official website of McLaren, there is no model called 450C. Indeed, it’s either an MP4-12C or a 650S,” he said.

“The modus operandi is to undervalue these cars by declaring them as lower models or lower variants to clueless Customs personnel,” he said.

Gunigundo said it is possible that Customs officials and assessors could be “part of the charade.”

He said smugglers and corrupt Customs officers make a mockery of the tuwid na daan (straight path) core advocacy of President Aquino.