WHO IS this middle-aged car dealer belonging to a powerful religious group who has zoomed his way up as the go-to supplier of exotic cars and fancy SUVs since businessman Alberto Lina took over Sunny Sevilla’s seat at the Bureau of Customs?
A buzzard told us that this “brother” operates a customs bonded warehouse (CBW) where he sneaks in as “used imports” Mercedes Benz, BMW, Ferrari and Lamborghini cars and SUVS that looked like they just came off a showroom. His clients include high officials of the religious group itself and politicians.
The car importer reportedly declares the cars as damaged or spare parts and keeps them in his CBW until they’re sold. The guy’s connections run all the way to the Land Transportation Office (LTO), which makes the registration seamless.
Why the BOC is looking the other way when this fellow is driving off his cars out of the CBW is not a mystery: The bloc-voting religious sect has always been a major player in Aduana. The car dealer also shares his selfies with the powerful and famous on social media in case somebody needed proof of his connections.
His Quezon City garage is where buyers get to see his high-priced goodies for sale such as several units of Mercedes SLS Black Series AMG worth $400,000 each; Ferrari 458 Speciale worth $350,000 each; Lamborghini Huracan worth $300,000 each, and Mercedes G-Class SUVs at $100,000 each.
Our buzzard says the guy doesn’t pay more than P1 million in taxes for each hot car (sometimes he doesn’t pay anything at all), which is why other importers are getting furious because they pay more than double the price of the unit in taxes and duties.
And they were made to believe that “Daang Matuwid” meant the end of the road for car smuggling. Gil Cabacungan
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