Cagayan economic zone allows used-car importations anew

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines—The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza) allowed importers to bring used cars into the country once more, and a shipment was scheduled to arrive on Dec. 14 at Port Irene in Santa Ana town in Cagayan province.

Ceza Administrator Jose Mari Ponce issued an import permit on Dec. 5 for 437 used cars from Japan, heeding an order issued by a regional trial court (RTC) in Aparri town, said Nilo Aldeguer, Ceza senior deputy administrator.

The order also ended a slump in the used car trade that began in February due to the legal issues surrounding used-car importation.

“Ceza was constrained to issue the import permit,” Aldeguer said, after Judge Neljoe Cortes of the Aparri RTC ruled that government agencies may no longer restrict used-car imports because the Supreme Court already nullified the ban imposed in 2002.

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had issued Executive Order No. 156 that imposed a partial ban on the entry of used cars. But in 2005, she issued EO 418, which modified the tariff rates of imported used vehicles, that helped legalize the used-car importation trade at the Subic Bay Freeport and the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport.

The constitutionality of both executive orders was questioned in court. The RTC ruling addressed a petition filed by Forerunner Multi Resources Inc., a Ceza-licensed importer of second-hand vehicles, which had challenged EO 156.

The petition was elevated to the Supreme Court, which reverted the case to the RTC so it would undergo a trial that ended with the Nov. 12 decision.

Another Ceza importer, Fenix (Ceza) International Inc., had challenged the constitutionality of E0 418, which the Supreme Court upheld in 2010. The high court issued a writ of execution on June 24, 2011.

In his decision made on Nov. 12, Cortes said the high court’s ruling on the Fenix lawsuit implies that EO 418 had repealed EO 156, thus rendering the ban on used-car imports “inoperative.”

Aldeguer said the processing of the newly imported vehicles expected on Dec. 14 would rely on how the Bureau of Customs would treat the cargo.