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Cebu City, Philippines - The 18 Korean-made cars that the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) seized over the weekend on suspicion of having been smuggled will be added to the discussion of the House of Representatives? committee on good government on Wednesday as they continue their inquiries on car smuggling through Cebu.
Representative Pedro Romualdo (Camiguin), chairman of the committee, said they would ask officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) about the seizure.
?We will ask them what they have been doing that more allegedly smuggled cars have again entered the country,? Romualdo said.
LTO officials are expected to continue their explanation of how thousands of imported cars were able to get registrations from its office in Toledo City without necessary requirements such as certificates of payment of duties and taxes from the BOC.
Romualdo said the committee aimed to put a stop to car smuggling in the country by using the result of the inquiry to create new laws.
Last Saturday, the PASG discovered 18 Hyundai and Kia vehicles inside a warehouse in Sacres Extension, Mandaue City.
The warehouse was registered under the business name Song Pa Motors Trading, managed by Michael Nengasca. Government records showed that the establishment was authorized to trade in motorcycles, not cars.
Some of the cars had what looked like legitimate plate numbers, but the number combinations did not exist in LTO records.
PASG?s Ricardo Collantes, in his explanation to Regional Trial Court Judge Geraldine Faith Econg of Branch 9 when applying for a search warrant, said that the vehicles came into the country without the payment of Customs duties.
Collantes said PASG did not want to apply for a search warrant in Mandaue City, where the warehouse was located, because it was rumored that Nengasca had strong connections with local politicians.
The PASG returned to Econg yesterday the search warrant for the warehouse.
Danilo Go, legal counsel of Nengasca, said Sunday that the vehicles were all legal. He could show PASG the papers for these yesterday, he said.
As of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Go did not show up at the local PASG office, said Fernando Samontanes, Jr., head of PASG in Central Visayas.
Samontanes said PASG would file a case against Nengasca for violation of Executive Order 156, which controls the importation of used vehicles, if Go could not prove soon that the vehicles were legal.
