Summary:
Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue head Hyll Retuya announced plans to dispose of over 2,000 long-abandoned impounded vehicles through a public auction due to severe overcrowding at the city's holding facility.
The Mandaue City Traffic Board will convene next month to formally declare the vehicles legally abandoned, in accordance with a 2020 city ordinance and to resolve previous Commission on Audit concerns.
The city previously implemented three amnesty and reclaiming programs, but owners failed to retrieve the vehicles, some of which have been sitting unclaimed in the impounding area since 2015.
MANDAUE City authorities are preparing to dispose of more than 2,000 long-abandoned impounded vehicles through a public auction as the city’s holding area has become severely congested, Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) head Hyll Retuya said.
Retuya said the impounding facility is overcrowded with unclaimed vehicles ranging from motorcycles and tricycles to private cars and stripped vehicle frames, some of which have remained in the area for nearly a decade.
He said the Mandaue City Government is accelerating legal procedures to officially declare the vehicles abandoned so they can be sold through a public auction to the highest bidders.
“The impounding area is already full, and we really need to decongest the facility because thousands of vehicles have been left there unclaimed for many years,” Retuya said.
The planned disposal operation is being coordinated among several city offices, including the Mandaue City Disposal Committee, the City Legal Office, the Department of General Services (DGS), the Mandaue City Traffic Board, and the Office of the City Mayor.
The Traffic Board is expected to convene next month to formally declare the qualified vehicles as legally abandoned under the provisions of a 2020 city ordinance governing public towing services, Retuya said.
Under the ordinance, any vehicle left unclaimed for more than six months may be considered abandoned after undergoing the proper legal process.
Retuya said many of the vehicles being considered for disposal were impounded as far back as 2015, 2016, and 2017, while others date from 2025 and earlier.
“There are vehicles that have been sitting in the impounding area for years. Some are already heavily damaged, stripped, or no longer operational, yet nobody has claimed them despite repeated opportunities given by the city,” he said.
He said the City Government implemented three separate amnesty and reclaiming programs in previous years to allow owners to retrieve their vehicles, but many failed to comply.
Because of this, Retuya said the city is proceeding with the legal disposal process to clear the area and address long-standing audit concerns.
The Commission on Audit (COA) previously flagged the agency regarding the accumulated vehicles and the corresponding revenues and storage fees tied to them.
“We already gave several chances to the owners to reclaim their vehicles. Since they did not take advantage of those opportunities, the city now has the legal basis to move forward with the disposal process,” he said.
Once the Traffic Board issues the official declaration of abandonment, the Disposal Committee will determine the final mechanics of the auction, including whether the vehicles will be sold individually or by batch lots.
Authorities believe the public auction will help clear the congested impounding facility and allow the City Government to recover revenues from long-idle assets occupying public space.
Retuya said the City Government hopes the move will resolve years of congestion inside the impounding area while improving operational efficiency for Team personnel handling newly impounded vehicles.
“This is not only about disposing of abandoned vehicles. This is also about restoring order and making sure the facility can properly function again,” he said. / ABC