- Auction for smuggled luxury cars fails a second time
- 5 smuggled luxury vehicles seized by the Bureau of Customs failed anew to find buyers
- This is the second time the public auction has failed
- Vehicles on the January 24 auction block were offered for a total cost of P29.09 million
Public bidding for five smuggled luxury cars seized last year by the Bureau of Customs has failed a second time.
Vehicles on the January 24 auction block were offered for a total cost of P29.09 million. These are a Porsche Boxter (2001) with a floor price of P1.798 million; Mercedes SLK350 (2001), P1.248 million; Mercedes SLK55 (2001), P1.324 million; Ferrari Scuderia 430 (2008), P23.225 million; and Mercedes E220 (2011), P1.492 million.
The vehicles were seized in May and June this year and were issued final and executory orders of forfeiture by BOC.
READ: No takers for auctioned seized luxury cars; second bidding set
Now that the bidding has failed anew, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III was quoted as saying the vehicles may have to be destroyed. Destruction was government’s previously preferred method of disposing smuggled vehicles but this was revised to public bidding so that proceeds from auction sales can be used to augment the government’s COVID-19 response.
President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier ordered the destruction of seized vehicles to deter smugglers from buying the vehicles and then selling them in the domestic market.
An inter-agency committee was formed last December 1 composed of representatives from BOC, Bureau of the Treasury and Land Bank of the Philippines to ensure transparency of the bidding process and promote competition through broad dissemination of auction information.
The first failed Inter-Agency auction was held on December 13, 2021.
