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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
BOC to provide more cars for Asean summit
NEWLY installed Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu District Collector Ricardo Belmonte pledged to provide more vehicles for the Asean summit delegates later this year.
Belmonte promised this after meeting Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and City Councilor Sylvan Jakosalem last Tuesday afternoon.
The vehicles, Jakosalem said, will be for the delegates accompanying the heads of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member countries and their dialogue partners.
The BOC earlier donated 10 right-hand-drive sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to City Hall for the police.
Jakosalem, chairman of the council committee on transportation, said Belmonte promised to let the City get vehicles it could use from among those kept at the BOC container yard.
The vehicles were seized by the BOC because of lack of import papers. Others are right-hand-drive vehicles, which are banned in the country.
Jakosalem will visit the BOC within this week to look at the cars. He also said the City is willing to spend P20,000 to P50,000 to fix the vehicles, which are mostly SUVs.
The vehicles, however, will not be donated but will only be lent to the city.
But Jakosalem is confident the BOC will let City Hall use them even after the Asean once Belmonte sees that they are well taken care of.
“The Customs will assign it to the City Government but not as donations,” he said.
As for the donated vehicles, Jakosalem said the City Government will spend P90,000 each to convert into left-hand-drive vehicles the 10 Nissan Terranos, Toyota Surfs, and Mitsubishi SUVs donated to the City.
City Hall and BOC will sign the deed of donation this Monday.
Jakosalem said the vehicles will be available two months from now yet since the bidding process for the conversion is still ongoing.
The additional vehicles Belmonte promised to provide will all be left-hand-drive so the City will not have to spend to convert them, Jakosalem added.
Luxury car manufacturer BMW earlier pledged to lend the country 17 brand new high-end vehicles for the heads of state of the participating countries.
It will also provide 55 other luxury cars for the ministers.
The high-end vehicles cost around P10 million each while the lower end units cost P3 million each.
BMW also pledged to provide the drivers for all vehicles and 100 liters of fuel for each car for the duration of the summit.
Osmeña, in an earlier interview, said the gesture means a savings of P200 to P300 million on the part of the National Government since it would no longer have to buy bulletproof limousines for the heads of state.
The National Government only has to pay for the special plates and for the insurance of the vehicles for the period they will be used. (RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (July 19, 2006 issue)
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