THE Bureau of Customs will investigate the Discaya family’s ownership of dozens of imported luxury cars, as they themselves revealed in interviews with media personalities Korina Sanchez and Julius Babao.
The interviewers claimed that their feature on Sarah and Curlee Discaya were intended to air as a lifestyle piece; the rags-to-riches story is meant to serve as an inspiration for viewers. The episodes aired before the campaign period for the 2025 midterm elections in which Sarah ran as mayor of Pasig City.
Unfortunately, the interviews have now been taken down from the Internet, to the detriment of those who want to view them again and analyze their more profound implications on governance, decency, and even common sense.
In the videos, the couple toured the interviewer around a warehouse and flaunted their 40 high-end vehicles. But they don’t use all of them, they said, as if to water down
And when the couple was asked when their quality of life started to improve, they replied: since they started dealing with the Department of Works and Highways. They did so with unbelievable candor — without shame, awkwardness, much less remorse.
The commissioner of the BOC made the assurance over a radio interview in which the show hosts asked if his agency had any plans of looking into the issue.
“Since information on that has been opened, we’ll have it looked into immediately,” said Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno.
The answer is telling, because it is predicated by the fact that the public has had knowledge of the luxury cars’ existence. The Discayas, aside from running for office, were among the 15 contractors named by the president for cornering the highest number of flood control projects all over the country.
Imagine the conflict of interest had they won.
The issue has spawned numerous debates about the propriety of interviewing would-be candidates and finding nothing objectionable about a stable of luxury cars after snagging deals with the government. All these tie up with the bigger issue of funding flood control projects – and other government deals for that matter – where politicians and their private associates pocket millions per project while the real undertaking leaves much, or all, to be desired.
It is our hope that such investigations are done actively as part of regular housekeeping, toward the performance of authorities’ mandate. Otherwise, we will be stuck with ad hoc measures to curb whatever likely evidence of wrongdoing there is, leaving the rest that go unnoticed, remain unnoticed.
