LTO looking into 1,000 missing cars from Port Irene

MANILA, Philippines – The Land Transportation Office (LTO) expressed surprise yesterday over conflicting reports of the importers and officials of the Cagayan Export Zone Authority (CEZA), which showed a discrepancy of at least 1,000 secondhand vehicles imported through Port Irene in Santa Ana, Cagayan in the past three years.

This developed as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said there were no smuggling activities at the port where a son-in-law of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile controls the clearing of used vehicles that are brought in through the port.

Enrile vowed yesterday to support the vehicle importers at the CEZA in any court case that may be filed against them.

LTO chief Alberto Suansing told The STAR that he was surprised to hear the report of the CEZA that at least 9,000 vehicles were brought to the free port in the last three years while the Auto Rebuilding Industry in Cagayan (ARIC) has reported that some 7,700 vehicles were imported.

“I am just asking where the 1,000 vehicle are, are they running in the streets unregistered?” Suansing added.

Suansing said he has already sent an audit team to the LTO office in Aparri, Cagayan to determine the actual number of imported vehicles that passed through Port Irene and were registered with the LTO.

He said the LTO is the last agency, after the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, to have processed the documents for the imported vehicles before they are allowed out of the free port zone.

ARIC president Vicente Jaime earlier said that their group, composed of nine locators, has imported more than 7,000 vehicles from Japan, Korea and Europe.

When asked about the discrepancy, he said the record of the ARIC was not updated and represented only 40 of the shipments.

“There is no discrepancy, the CEZA report is the complete list of vehicles that arrived in the country,” he said.

Suansing said he would push for the total audit of their records to find out how many of the more than 9,000 vehicles have been registered. – Perseus Echeminada, Aurea Calica