BOC seizes banned cars at Manila port

Intelligence agents of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have seized at the Port of Manila eight right-hand cars, which also turned out to have been stolen.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said two separate shipments consigned to Gacram Trading and Pasaram Trading contained right-hand cars and SUVs banned under Republic Act 8506.

The vehicles, which included a Mazda RX8, a Subaru and a Toyota Surf, had been misdeclared as "used agricultural machinery." The cars and SUVs are worth some P13 million.

Morales said that in response to a request from Interpol about the status of the shipments, it was found out that the banned vehicles had been recorded stolen in Japan.

"This is a result of careful profiling and analytical evaluation of the import documents by our Operations and Intelligence Office, led by Maj. Isabelo Tibayan III," the BOC chief said.

Apart from illegal importation of banned right-hand drive vehicles, the BOC will also be filing charges of misdeclaration of import shipments against the importer of the vehicles.