BOC has 60 days to decide if supercars will be destroyed

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) said Tuesday it has 60 days to decide if the 22 luxury vehicles, including supercars McLaren and Lamborghini, will be destroyed similar to the fate of other smuggled cars last week.

“The process of deliberation should be completed in 60 days ... That is the maximum period given to our legal department,” Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña told reporters during the media presentation of the 22 vehicles in Manila on Tuesday.

The 22 luxury vehicles including high-end sports cars were not destroyed as these were subjects of ongoing litigation at the bureau.

“We are doing litigation because we cannot just dispose them without going through due process,” Lapeña said.

The vehicles were valued at P133,684,850.

The importers have 15 days after receiving a notice of forfeiture to file an appeal, “otherwise, the BOC will proceed with the destruction of the seized vehicles,” the bureau said.

Lapeña said the proceeds from the scraps of destroyed vehicles will be donated through the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

“That’s my decision—that it will be donated through the DILG, because the DILG has a better way of determining who can benefit on this scrap,” he said.

On February 6, President Rodrigo Duterte led the condemnation of 20 smuggled luxury vehicles at the Port Area in Manila. Ten other smuggled vehicles were simultaneously destroyed at the Ports of Davao and Cebu. —VDS, GMA News