Bulk of P100M of seized luxury cars bought by Batangas contractor

An ultra-rare Mercedes CLK DTM AMG

A notorious Batangas contractor has bought the bulk of the P100 million worth of luxury cars seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at the Batangas port last Aug. 5.

A Buzzard told us that the Batangas contractor, who built a fortune from padded road construction projects during the Arroyo administration, was dejected when he heard that the shipment of the smuggler in religious robes was intercepted for gross undervaluation.

The Batangas contractor was particularly saddened that his coveted 2004 Mercedes Benz CLK DTM AMG was part of the hot cars impounded by the BOC.

The Benz super-car, worth 500,000 euros or P25.38 million, was declared a brand new C200 with a blue book value of 27,500 euros or P1.4 million. There are only a few hundred CLK DTMs in existence, of which only three are in the Philippines.

The Benz super-car would have been a centerpiece in the Batangas contractor’s garage showroom, which includes a Mclaren 450C, Ferrari 458 and more than a dozen vintage 993 Porsches.

The Batangas contractor apparently did not give up on his beloved car as he instructed the smuggler in robes to use two equally notorious customs brokers to “fix” the problem—a Chinese national and a trader involved in diamonds, foreign exchange and Bureau of Internal Revenue receipts.

But our Buzzard tells us that the BOC has foiled this bold attempt to sneak out the luxury cars whose seizure had been widely reported in media. Let’s see if the BOC will stand firm or fold to this corrupt contractor and gang of fixers and smugglers.–Gil Cabacungan