Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Monday directed the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee to determine if the two Bugatti Chiron sports cars that entered the country have been smuggled.
Zubiri said there are only 60 Bugattis in the world which cost $3 million per unit.
“The government is the loser here. And we want to know who registered them, the LTO office they were registered, and which port was used,” Zubiri said.
He also said they want to find out if there are any liabilities on the part of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), the Marines, or the Bureau of Customs in this particular issue.
The Senate chief said all concerned agencies should be subpoenaed and that lawmakers will look into possible punishment for those who connived in this alleged smuggling.
According to Zubiri, the Bugattis are owned by “wealthy and arrogant foreigners.”
He said he further wants to determine if these foreigners are involved in drug smuggling.
Senator Raffy Tulfo, in a speech denounced the rampant smuggling of luxury vehicles at the Bureau of Customs following the report that two Bugatti worth $3 million each were able to sneak out of the agency’s security.
During Monday’s plenary session, Tulfo said Customs’ modernization program should be implemented for easy coordination among government agencies such as the LTO, among others.
“We have to implement already the National Single Window Program. The Customs, they keep on delaying it. Just this year we gave them a budget of more than a billion pesos for their modernization program. This should be utilized to enhance our ability to collect customs duties efficiently,” Tulfo said.
“According to our Constitution, we are tasked to evolve a progressive system of taxation, meaning that the higher the income, the greater the tax paid but based on what we found out today, progressive is not taxation but tax evasion. We need funds to run this government and to provide service to the people, let us develop an effective system that would prevent tax evasion and corruption,” he added.