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MANILA, Philippines—The government raised P20.83 million from the sale of two used, smuggled luxury vehicles–the more expensive units among four offered at auction on Wednesday (June 15).
The joint auction by the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), and the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines sold a 2006 Lamborghini Vin, abandoned in 2016, at P10.378 million to FR Agbay Jr. Enterprises. The selling price was slightly higher than the floor price of P10.377 million. The Lamborghini was among four luxury cars listed in a failed bidding last June 9.
The BOC and the BTr also successfully sold the more expensive 2008 Ferrari Scuderia 430 — auctioned off for the fifth time since December last year — to a certain ETANS, this time fetching P10.452 million or higher than the minimum bid price of P10.451 million.
ETANS and FR Agbay Jr. Enterprises were the only two bidders that participated and submitted bids for the two cars, beating each other for the Ferrari and Lamborghini units, respectively.
The auction used clustering, in which the highest bid became the new floor price, and then the second-highest bidder was given a chance to outbid the top bidder. In both successfully sold cars, the top bidders won as second placers did not raise their bids.
However, for the fifth straight time, the 2001 Porsche Boxster as well as the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E220 also again offered on Wednesday did not attract any bidder. This, despite the BOC already slashing their selling prices by about half compared to the original floor prices when they were first offered last December. The Porsche had a floor price of P809,082.97, while the Mercedes-Benz was offered at a minimum of P783,049.46.
The BOC last April raised P6.3 million from selling three hot cars — a brand-new Mercedes-Benz G500 sport utility vehicle (SUV), at P4.8 million; a confiscated used 2001 Mercedes-Benz SLK55, at P775,000; and an also smuggled 2001 Mercedes-Benz SLK350, at P730,000.
Pre-pandemic, the BOC destroyed smuggled vehicles in public to show that the government was serious in its anti-smuggling drive. But the government last year changed its tack and auctioned off some of the luxury cars it had seized to raise additional revenues amid the prolonged fight against COVID-19.