Ban on secondhand car import stays

The order banning the importation of secondhand cars will stand, Malacañang said yesterday.

Palace officials stressed the prohibition on the importation of secondhand cars will still be implemented, contrary to claims by Sen. Richard Gordon that the ban was being lifted in exchange for Alliance of Volunteer Educators Rep. Eulogio "Amang" Magsaysay withdrawing his support from the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo.

Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Gordon’s statements were purely "speculative."

Bunye said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita himself denied plans to allow the importation of right-hand drive vehicles. "I should know," Bunye quoted Ermita as saying.

Executive Order No. 156 bans the importation of used cars but this was nullified by the Court of Appeals.

Pending reconsideration of the court’s decision, the President issued EO No. 419 temporarily increasing the tariff on the imported secondhand cars to P500,000.

Bunye said even the personalities allegedly involved in the "secret deal" have denied receiving anything from Malacañang in exchange for joining the majority in dismissing the impeachment complaint in the House of Representatives.

Bunye said the allegations of Gordon that Mrs. Arroyo was practicing "transactional leadership" were baseless, saying there is no evidence to back his statements.

Gordon, the former Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman who ran under the majority coalition in the last year’s elections, cited reports that Mrs. Arroyo had allegedly given millions of pesos to some congressmen for their "no" votes on the impeachment case, along with concessions to the Magsaysays to open the Subic Freeport anew to secondhand cars from abroad.

Bunye did not comment on Gordon’s threats to break away from the coalition.

He said Gordon’s accusations were not true in first place. "I don’t think whatever Senator Gordon is thinking will happen," Bunye said, referring to the supposed plan to again allow secondhand cars into the country.

‘Political Acrobatics’

Magsaysay, for his part, denied the allegations of Gordon on the reported plan to revoke the ban.

"Gordon was simply resorting to political acrobatics in airing his allegation, because I have absolutely nothing to do with the operation of the Subic Bay Freeport, much less do I have anything to do with any private business there," Magsaysay said.

He said Gordon has motives against the Magsaysays in making his claims.

"Although I am not involved in Zambales politics, I am not entirely unaware of the political trouncing the Gordons got from the Magsaysays," he said. "And I am not surprised."

Magsaysay said the senator should have aired his accusations before the court and appealed the ruling over the Executive Order 156.

Magsaysay said the primary reason for his withdrawal from the impeachment complaint was because of a moral conviction that the complaint had failed to meet the legal requirements of sufficiency in substance.