A plan to bulldoze 70 luxury cars is a message to smugglers, President Duterte has said. The vehicles, including a Lamborghini Glardo, a 2006 Lamborghini Murcielago, and a white 2005 Ferrari F430, were seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Tuesday.
Malacañang has confirmed that the president ordered the BOC to stop putting such confiscated cars up for auction.
During a press briefing in Laoag City, the president said he hoped to personally witness the destruction.
His spokesman Harry Roque added: “He will not stay for long there so he will not be able to witness the destruction of all vehicles because he will still have to grace the NEDA anniversary.”
According to Roque, the bulldozing of smuggled cars is now government policy.
“The thing speaks for itself. He will not tolerate putting these vehicles up for auction as this becomes reason to smuggle luxury cars,” he said. “It will now become policy to bulldoze) smuggled luxury vehicles.”
Roque added that even if there were suggestions to just use the smuggled luxury cars as government vehicles, the president had already made up his mind.
“The President has already decided to send a message to smugglers that their happy days are over, we will bulldoze those cars,” he said.
Last November alone, the BOC seized 24.3 million pesos worth of used luxury cars and overweight steel products at the Manila International Container Port from Australia, the United Arab Emirates and China.
In September 2017, the BOC also seized two Mercedes Benz, along with parts, worth 10 million pesos.
Just last month we reported on the decision to crush another fleet of luxury cars seized at Cagayan free port. These ncluded a McLaren sports car, Lamborghini, Range Rover and Ferrari.