Makati City, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs (BOC), through its Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service at the Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP), seized another group of allegedly smuggled high-end luxury cars on Friday, February 14.
According to Alvin Enciso, chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, an informant gave them information related to the super cars.
After receiving the information the BOC immediately conducted an operation on Friday night which led to the seizure of super cars.
Enciso said an investigation is now ongoing that these high end cars are allegedly owned by some POGO operators due to the documents and details of the cars permit.
“Initial information po namin, ituro po yung mga vehicles, transportation na ginagamit po ng mga taga-POGO dati. Kaya makikita po natin sa mga initial documents na ipinakita ho sa’tin, puro mga foreigners—from China, from Taiwan, may Korean din—mga nag-alisan na ho siguro kaya naiwan. Pero, these are being checked kung talagang related sa POGO. Pero lahat po, talagang makikita natin, lahat may Chinese names,” Enciso noted.
It is estimated that the vehicles that consist of sports cars, sedans and SUVs cost around 370 million pesos.
Enciso said the owner or representatives, or any parties responsible for the warehouse and vehicles found therein have 15 days from the receipt of the Letter of Authority (LOA) to submit the necessary documents proving that all duties and taxes have been paid correctly.
“These are all consigned…buy and sell daw po itong ACH motors. And naka-consign naman, may dokumento na ipinapakita. kaya ipinapaliwanag ho namin sa kanila, tawagin nyo na ho kung sino ang mga nag-consign sa inyo ng mga kotseng ito at kung hindi sila makakapagpakita ng mga proof of payment, ito po ay hahatakin namin at i-se-seize,” Enciso added.
The BOC is also investigating how the high end cars managed to get through the many ports in the country
Along with this, Enciso assured that their operations will continue, particularly the intelligence group of customs in combating smuggling and tracking down other supercars hidden and avoiding duties and taxes.