MANILA, Philippines – Valenzuela City Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo bared yesterday the modus operandi used by criminal syndicates in smuggling luxury vehicles into the country through the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
Gunigundo, a member of the House sub-committee on tariff and customs, made the disclosure after the Bureau of Customs (BOC) district collector at the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) reported to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) that over 1,800 vehicles that entered the freeport are now missing.
The luxury vehicles include sports cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) like Jaguar, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Land Rover. Other vehicles that are imported through freeports are heavy equipment, ambulances, fire trucks and other special use vehicles.
Gunigundo said the luxury vehicles, usually secondhand units, are imported into the country by locators at the freeports so they are exempted from duties and taxes.
Under the freeport law, locators who import such vehicles – mostly right-hand driven – are only authorized to convert the cars to left-hand drive and make some repairs since it is assumed that they would be re-exported.
The vehicles are allowed only to travel inside the Subic Freeport unless for complicated repairs, in which special permits have to be secured from the SBMA. The permits expire in two to three weeks.
Once the vehicles leave Subic for local use, taxes must be paid before they could be registered.
Gunigundo said what smuggling syndicates do is while the luxury vehicles are parked at the Subic Freeport, the documents of the cars are brought to LTO offices in Davao, Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani where the vehicles are registered.
He said the luxury vehicles are issued license plates for the jurisdiction starting with letters “K”, “J” and “M.”
The plates and the new registration papers are returned to Subic and attached to the imported vehicles.
Since the luxury vehicles are sporting license plates from other LTO jurisdictions, they are not checked when leaving the Subic Freeport, Gunigundo said.
“This modus operandi cannot be done successfully without the involvement of LTO, BOC, and SBMA officials and some locators,” he said.
He said it is relatively easy to trace who are involved in the reported smuggling since there are only a few locators at Subic that are authorized to import vehicles duty-free.
Gunigundo said he is supporting calls of his colleagues to conduct an inquiry into the smuggling of luxury vehicles through the Subic Freeport.
Earlier, Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, chairman of the panel, and Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, said they are calling for a congressional investigation on the reported smuggling at Subic.
Castelo expressed dismay that tax exemption privileges in freeports are being abused.
“This should be cause of legitimate concern owing to the evident collusion of some officials from LTO, BOC, Department of Foreign Affairs, and SBMA,” he said.
Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon yesterday said the bureau is interested in getting a seat in the SBMA board to avoid disappearance of imported luxury vehicles from the freeport.
Biazon said that they are already in the process of recommending that they be given a seat at SBMA.
He would submit copies of the recommendations to the SBMA. If there is a need to amend a law, he might forward the request to Congress.
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By: Paolo Romero with Evelyn Macairan
Source: The Philippine Star, Sept. 23, 2011
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