Customs pushes EO in CEZA

The Bureau of Customs announced yesterday the full implementation of EO 156 which bans the importation of second hand cars in Port Irene at the Cagayan Export Zone Authority.

“I have ordered the full implementation of EO 156 in CEZA” Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales told reporters during the weekly Kapihan sa Sulo Hotel in Quezon City.

He, however, clarified that only cars and sports utility vehicles are covered by the ban. The importation of trucks, ambulances and earth moving equipment will be allowed.

Morales said the enforcement of EO 156 was an offshoot of the legal opinion of the Office of the Soliticitor General that EO 156 which was upheld by the Supreme Court covers all ports in the country.

He said the BOC has sought the opinion of the OSG because when EO 156 was issued in 2002, CEZA did not yet exist and the ban only applied to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in Olongapo City.

The Auto Rebuilding Industry in Cagayan has earlier welcomed any move from the BOC to ban the processing of cars, as this will be the basis of their legal action to question the legality of EO 156.

Jayme Vicente ARIC president told The STAR they have obtained a temporary restraining order from a regional trial court ordering the BOC and other government agencies from implementing the ban.

But Morales said the TRO is good only for 72 hours and it had lapsed yesterday.

“Unless they can get an injunction then we have to comply with the court order,” he said.

The import ban will affect some 1,000 newly arrived cars in the CEZA in the past months.

The Land Transportation Office has also stopped the registration of cars in Port Irene in compliance with the OSG opinion.

Alberto Suansing, LTO chief said at least 7,000 cars from CEZA were registered with the LTO for the past several years.

Amid the ongoing legal impasse, the CEZA said it was still anticipating the arrival of several more shipments of used cars in the coming days.

This, despite the ongoing legal battle between the national government and used car dealers in the Cagayan Economic Zone and Free Port based in Santa Ana town over the importation and registration of used cars.

“We are expecting several more shipments of used cars to arrive at Port Irene in the coming days while some may already be here,” said Julian Gonzales, principal engineer of the CEZA International Port of Irene, where said used cars are being disembarked.

“We have decided to just let the imported cars arrive and have them impounded until the legal issues are resolved,” added Gonzales, also informing that the anticipated new arrivals are second-hand Japanese and Korean vehicles.

This statement came in the wake of a case earlier filed by the ARIC questioning the order of CEZA administrator Jose Mari Ponce suspending the registration of used cars at the free port.

Ponce’s order was in consonance with the Palace directive for the implementation of President Arroyo’s EO 156 banning the entry of second-hand cars into the country. 

Initially, CEZA had claimed that the Executive Order only covers the Subic Bay freeport and other seaports in the country and does not include Port Irene, which is managed by CEZA under a separate charter.