Still no buyer of Discaya’s Rolls-Royce with free umbrella at Customs 2nd auction

The public auction for Discayas’ Rolls-Royce Cullinan (2023), which became infamous and viral after Sarah said it came with a free umbrella, still failed to secure a buyer in a second try by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to put the remaining four luxury vehicles of the controversial contractor couple under the hammer.

The BOC, on Friday, December 5, held the second auction for the unsold luxury vehicles seized from Sarah and Curlee Discaya after the four units failed to attract buyers in the first public auction held last month.

Apart from the Rolls-Royce Cullinan (2023) with a floor price of P36,281,415.72, brought down from P45,314,391.11 in the first auction; the Bentley Bentayga (2022) with a floor price of P13,878,800.38, down from P17,311,121.93, also failed to attract a buyer.

The other Discaya vehicles auctioned off by the Customs during the second public bidding were the Toyota Tundra (2022) and Toyota Sequoia (2023).

During the second auction, the Toyota Tundra (2022) was secured by RMCE Metal Products Trading Corp. as it offered to buy the car for P3,489,000.00 against a floor price of P3,473,253.97.

The Toyota Sequoia (2023), on the other hand, was sold to Jose Maria Esteban III as he offered to buy the vehicle for P6,000,000.00 against a floor price of P4,669,554.50.

The BOC collected a total of P9,510,300.00 during the second auction.

Meanwhile, the three vehicles sold in the first auction were the Mercedes-Benz G500 (2019) Brabus, Mercedes Benz G63 (2022), and Lincoln Navigator (2022), in which the BOC collected P38,211,710.00.

Direct offer

In an ambush interview with reporters, BOC deputy chief-of-staff Chris Bendijo said the next option for the still unsold vehicles was to “accept direct offers.”

Bendijo said that under “direct offer,” interested buyers could set their own price or offers, after which the BOC will evaluate their offers and call for challengers.

“We will come out with an announcement for that…  we were supposed to announce the opening for a direct offer today, but we were not able to iron out the paperworks,” he said.

“We will be making formal announcements… for the direct offers,” he added.

Bendijo also clarified that Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno does not want to resort to condemnation of unsold luxury vehicles.

Early this week, the BOC official said that the bureau has the option to destroy the Discaya couple’s luxury vehicles should it remain unsold.

In the ambush interview, following the second auction, Bendijo said that condemnation was just a “last option.”

Bendijo said that Nepomuceno’s intent was “not to destroy [the vehicles] but to convert it into revenue.”

The BOC earlier said that proceeds of the auction will go to the forfeiture fund of the agency, which will then be reverted to the Bureau of the Treasury. —AOL, GMA Integrated News