CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group chief Antonio Villar Jr. said trading companies managed to ship out at least 325 second-hand vehicles from the Subic Bay Freeport on Saturday noon after their brokers allegedly paid a total of P6.5 million to some officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Bureau of Customs.
Villar said reports he received placed the amount of the payoffs at P20,000 for each used cars. He did not say who exactly benefited from the supposed deal.
But in a text message, Villar rued: “I don’t know why the SBMA and Customs allowed those broken and very old cars to be exported when those could not be sold in Hong Kong.”
PASG held the 134 units that had been loaded on the ship M.V. Han Lord and the 191 others that remained on the APL yard at the Naval Subic Depot since Feb. 15 due to lack of documents and to foil an alleged plan to smuggle the cars to Cebu City or Port Irene in Cagayan.
Subic acting collector Errol Albano denied the allegation of bribe-taking within the agency.
“There is someone who is sowing intrigues on the SBMA and Customs by feeding Undersecretary Villar wrong information. There can be no payoffs because for one, the transaction is lawful. And this is export. Luging-lugi na ang mga exporters (Exporters have been losing lots of money,” Albano explained.
Albano said the exporters paid $20,000 for each day that the ship was stranded in Subic.
The Office of the Solicitor General said there was “no legal impediment” to the export of imported used cars to a third country since the Supreme Court November 2007 ruling on Executive Order 156 deemed that to be lawful.
What the high court banned was the importation of used vehicles and their sale outside of the Subic customs territory, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera said in reply to the queries of Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales on the fate of more than 3,000 used vehicles held by the SBMA in compliance with the Supreme Court decision.
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said the release and shipment of the vehicles “went through the proper process.”
“Usec Villar consulted with his lawyer who said there’s no legal basis in holding the cargo,” Arreza said, denying the payoff.
When asked who approved the resumption of the loading of the remaining cars and for the ship to sail out, at 11:30 a.m., Arreza said in a text message that he would still have to check.
“Since PASG was the one who held [the cargo and the ship], it is its clearance that is being awaited,” Arreza he added.
In a text message, Albano said, “the customs inspector on board was informed [Friday] at around noon that they will resume loading. [On Friday] during the loading, some PASG people were there checking the vehicles.”
Villar said he also refused two bribe offers. “P5 million and offer sa PASG di ko pinatanggap. Bahala na ang mga buwaya diyan. Pinadalhan pa ako dito sa bahay di ko rin tinanggap (The offer to PASG was P5 million and I did not accept it. I left it to the crooks. They sent me money in my house which I did not accept also),” he said.
Villar asserted it was not the PASG that gave the go-signal to proceed with the outshipment.
“SBMA and Morales gave the permit. No one in Hong Kong would buy those cars. Those will be brought back to the Philippines. I heard the payoff was big,” he said.
The 325 cars were the first batch to be exported from among the more than 3,000 used vehicles that have been stocked in Subic for 14 months.
Arreza said the SBMA had turned down applications to ship those to Port Irene, reportedly the major source of second-hand vehicles that are being sold now in the country.
Villar said reports he received placed the amount of the payoffs at P20,000 for each used cars. He did not say who exactly benefited from the supposed deal.
But in a text message, Villar rued: “I don’t know why the SBMA and Customs allowed those broken and very old cars to be exported when those could not be sold in Hong Kong.”
PASG held the 134 units that had been loaded on the ship M.V. Han Lord and the 191 others that remained on the APL yard at the Naval Subic Depot since Feb. 15 due to lack of documents and to foil an alleged plan to smuggle the cars to Cebu City or Port Irene in Cagayan.
Subic acting collector Errol Albano denied the allegation of bribe-taking within the agency.
“There is someone who is sowing intrigues on the SBMA and Customs by feeding Undersecretary Villar wrong information. There can be no payoffs because for one, the transaction is lawful. And this is export. Luging-lugi na ang mga exporters (Exporters have been losing lots of money,” Albano explained.
Albano said the exporters paid $20,000 for each day that the ship was stranded in Subic.
The Office of the Solicitor General said there was “no legal impediment” to the export of imported used cars to a third country since the Supreme Court November 2007 ruling on Executive Order 156 deemed that to be lawful.
What the high court banned was the importation of used vehicles and their sale outside of the Subic customs territory, Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera said in reply to the queries of Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales on the fate of more than 3,000 used vehicles held by the SBMA in compliance with the Supreme Court decision.
SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said the release and shipment of the vehicles “went through the proper process.”
“Usec Villar consulted with his lawyer who said there’s no legal basis in holding the cargo,” Arreza said, denying the payoff.
When asked who approved the resumption of the loading of the remaining cars and for the ship to sail out, at 11:30 a.m., Arreza said in a text message that he would still have to check.
“Since PASG was the one who held [the cargo and the ship], it is its clearance that is being awaited,” Arreza he added.
In a text message, Albano said, “the customs inspector on board was informed [Friday] at around noon that they will resume loading. [On Friday] during the loading, some PASG people were there checking the vehicles.”
Villar said he also refused two bribe offers. “P5 million and offer sa PASG di ko pinatanggap. Bahala na ang mga buwaya diyan. Pinadalhan pa ako dito sa bahay di ko rin tinanggap (The offer to PASG was P5 million and I did not accept it. I left it to the crooks. They sent me money in my house which I did not accept also),” he said.
Villar asserted it was not the PASG that gave the go-signal to proceed with the outshipment.
“SBMA and Morales gave the permit. No one in Hong Kong would buy those cars. Those will be brought back to the Philippines. I heard the payoff was big,” he said.
The 325 cars were the first batch to be exported from among the more than 3,000 used vehicles that have been stocked in Subic for 14 months.
Arreza said the SBMA had turned down applications to ship those to Port Irene, reportedly the major source of second-hand vehicles that are being sold now in the country.
