TUGUEGARAO, Cagayan—President Rodrigo Duterte will be in the province today to personally witness the destruction of illegally imported luxury cars at the free port.
Lawyer Raul Lambino, Cagayan Economic Zone Authority administrator and CEO, confirmed that Duterte would be in Santa Ana in the far northern tip of the province.
“A total 14 luxury cars imported by First Cagayan will be wrecked during the visit of the President.
For these cars, he said First Cagayan “have (sic) not contested our order” when Ceza issued orders to seize and condemn the luxury vehicles.
“And when we issued order to seize this (sic) vehicles, they have not contested our order. They practically abandoned it (sic) already. So our decision of condemnation has become final and executory,” Lambino stressed.
Duterte had earlier said he would buy a new bulldozer for wrecking the imported cars in Ceza freeport.
Duterte said an Aston Martin was among the luxury cars imported through Ceza.
“I will purchase a new bulldozer and destroy all of them. No more imports,” Duterte said in a speech earlier in Tarlac.
Meanwhile, Lambino revealed they could not yet destroy more than 800 cars as the importers, Fenix Philippines, appealed to Ceza’s board.
“We have already made our decision to seize and condemn these vehicles, but they appealed [the] decision to the Ceza board, pursuant to our guidelines, so they are being represented by PECABAR Law Firm,” he said.
The partners of PECABAR Law Firm, according to their official website, are former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and other top lawyers Jesus M. Manalastas, Eleazar B. Reyes and Joseph B. Sagandoy.
Lambino said they would give due process to Fenix’s position as they were set to discuss the latter’s appeal in their board meeting on March 16.
But he stressed the government’s position was to wreck these imported cars since they entered the country as illegal items.
