Thursday, February 21, 2008 BOC to auction or crush seized cars
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu will auction hundreds of luxury cars and used vehicles seized for being smuggled.
Proceeds of the public auction will be spent to build houses for the poor and hospital wards for children, customs officials said yesterday.
District Collector Ricardo Belmonte said they will follow the directive of President Arroyo, issued last Dec. 20 and forwarded to the Port of Cebu yesterday by Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales.
“We reiterate our policy on the disposal of smuggled cars: auction off connoisseur cars which do not compete with domestic production, and earmark the proceeds for social housing or hospital upgrading; and demolish second-hand special utility vehicles because they compete with domestic production,” President Arroyo said in her order.
Pajero units lining up at the Cebu International Port (CIP) will be crushed and sold as metal blocks.
Proceeds of the auction of luxury cars will be added to the budget for Core Shelter Assistance of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Hundreds of vehicles seized by customs under Belmonte’s watch are currently stored at the CIP.
Morales, in a memo, reminded district and port collectors to follow the presidential policy on the disposal of smuggled cars.
Morales said during the third hearing of the House committee on good government last Feb. 13 that smuggling in the Philippines is a big business that guarantees a 30 percent return on investment.
But he clarified that vehicle smuggling usually starts at the Port of Subic, a free zone, with smugglers buying several units for registration in Cebu through the domestic ports.
Morales said that as ordered by Arroyo, all second-hand vehicles that compete with domestic production will be destroyed.
Morales advised district collectors that representatives from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the Federation of Philippine Industries, and private academic institutions must be invited as observers in the auction.
Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary Alberto Suansing, chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO), has submitted to Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza a report on the allegedly illegal registration of smuggled and stolen vehicles.
Suansing said that all LTO officials in Cebu and other parts of the country who are found involved in the registration will not only be recommended for dismissal from service but also charged in court. (EOB)
