Albay solon owns 4 of 81 hot cars seized in Makati

10 January 2008
By Jolene R. Bulambot and Jhunnex Napallacan
Inquirer Visayas
and Ephraim Aguilar Inquirer Southern Luzon

CEBU CITY—A CONGRESSman from disaster-stricken Albay province owned four of the 81 luxury cars, including a Ferrari, that were seized in Makati City last month on suspicion these were smuggled.

But the Land Transportation Office (LTO) said the congressman’s cars were legitimately registered.

Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara owned four of the cars, including a Ferrari, that were seized during a raid on a repair shop in Makati by the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), according to LTO head Reynaldo Berroya.

Berroya, however, said there was nothing irregular in the registration of the congressman’s vehicles.

Bichara represents the second district of Albay, a province still reeling from devastation wrought by Typhoons Milenyo and Reming and mudslides from Mayon Volcano.

Bichara is known in his district as a collector of vintage cars.

“I collect junk and restore them. That’s what I do,” Bichara said. “I will not allow (the PASG) to destroy my reputation.”

Publicity-hungry

Bichara reacted strongly to reports that he owned the four cars, calling members of the PASG “publicity-hungry vultures.”

The congressman admitted he owned only three of the cars that were at the Makati auto shop during the raid for maintenance.

“It is just like I am trusting my doctor for the maintenance of these cars. But it does not mean that when a criminal is found inside the hospital, the rest of the patients are criminals, too,” Bichara said.

He said some of the cars that he owns were bought secondhand.

Jaguar

Bichara said that he bought a Cherokee for only P300,000 and that he brought home a Jaguar from his stint as Philippine ambassador to Lebanon.

He also said he owned a Volvo, which he bought in the Philippines. He said he didn’t own a Lamborghini.

“Why are they going after the third and fourth owners of these cars? I am not a smuggler. I have documents to prove I have acquired these cars legally and locally,” Bichara said in a mobile phone interview Wednesday noon.

The PASG conducted the raid after receiving reports the vehicles were smuggled into the country.

Berroya said not all of the vehicles, including those of Bichara’s, were illegally registered and these could not have been smuggled.

47 cars not smuggled

Berroya said a check with LTO records showed 47 of these cars had legitimate registration papers.

LTO records, he said, showed that businessman Iñigo Zobel paid P8.7 million in taxes for a 1997 Ferrari, businessman Ricardo Tan Jr. paid P6.7 million in taxes for a 1999 Mercedes Benz, and businessman Joel Montana del Rosario paid P3.4 million for a 2000 BMW.

Zobel’s Ferrari was among the vehicles found at the Auto Sports 24 Corp. on Chino Roces Avenue that the PASG raided last Dec. 20.

Berroya did not say how much taxes Bichara had paid for his Ferrari and three other luxury cars that were seized in the PASG raid.

Berroya said the LTO did not issue the license plates of 13 of the 81 seized cars and did not have records of registration of 22 others.

He said the LTO had asked the PASG to submit documents on the seizure for further verification.

Six of the seized cars came from Cebu, said Berroya, who kept his post as LTO chief despite an order issued by President Macapagal-Arroyo replacing him with former Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao.

“How can these be smuggled when they were legitimately registered and they are owned by prominent personalities?” said Berroya.

“It’s unfair to say majority of these cars were smuggled and the initial findings will even say that only six of these came from Cebu. There is no basis yet to say these were smuggled,” he said.

Turnover

Berroya came to Cebu to witness the turnover at the LTO office in Central Visayas. Alex Leyson, sacked LTO Central Visayas chief, was replaced by Raul Aguilos.

Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza removed Leyson after he was linked to the illegal registration of smuggled cars in Cebu.

Leyson said he had nothing to do with the irregular car registration and welcomed the investigation because it would clear his name.

Investigation

The relief of Leyson, was not a punishment but a move to allow the investigation of irregular vehicle registrations in Cebu, according to Berroya.

Five LTO offices in Cebu province face investigation and the heads of these offices were ordered to answer allegations of irregularities in vehicle registration.

Car dealers in the city had complained that some of the cars that they sold could not be registered because the registration papers that bore the chassis numbers of the new cars were issued to cars that did not come from them.

Berroya said the LTO planned to revise the registration system by having this centralized at the LTO office in Quezon City, instead of allowing registrations in regional offices.