The re-auction of the luxury cars of contractor couple Cezarah ‘Sarah’ and Pacifico ‘Curlee’ Discaya generated over P9 million in revenue after two more vehicles were sold on Friday.
Four remaining vehicles of the couple were put up in this second auction after the BOC failed to secure successful bids for them in the first auction on November 20. In the first auction, the BOC was able to sell only three vehicles for a total of P38,211,710.
In this second auction, the following vehicles were sold:
a Toyota Tundra to RMCE Metal Products Trading Corp. for P3,480,000 (with an updated floor price of P3,473,253.97)
a Toyota Sequoia Jose Maria Esteban III for P6,000,000 (with a floor price of P4,669,554.50)
The BOC collected a total of P9,510,300.
Meanwhile, no bidders were once again declared for Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Bentley Bentayga. The floor price of Rolls Royce-Cullinan was lowered from P45,314,391.11 to P36,281,415.72 and Bentley Bentayga from P17,311,121.93 to P13,878,800.38.
‘Direct offer’ option
With the remaining two vehicles failing to secure bidding in the first two auctions, BOC Spokesperson Atty. Chris Bendijo said that they will wait for the recommendation from the auction committee to conduct a negotiated sale option or ‘direct offer.’
‘Just to enumerate again the remedies available under our existing CAO [Customs Administrative Order], if there are up to two failed biddings in an auction, we can now accept direct offers, this is the negotiated sale option,’ Bendijo told reporters in a mix of Filipino and English during an interview.
‘Of course, we cannot resort to donation to other government agencies for their use because it is inappropriate to donate sports cars to other government agencies for their use,’ he added.
Bendijo explained that under direct offer, it is the general public that will submit their offers unlike in the auction where it is the BOC that determines the floor price of the vehicles. Bendijo added that Customs Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno will consider the direct offers if they are deemed acceptable.
Bendijo also said that the agency will publish the direct offers in hopes that they will receive higher offers. He then reiterated that under the CAO, officials and employees of BOC, importers, forwarders, consignees, and owners of the vehicles being offered are prohibited in submitting direct offers.
Meanwhile, Bendijo clarified that the option of condemnation of the vehicles is not automatic after two failed biddings.
‘It is just an available option but as I have mentioned clearly, the preference of Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno is not to destroy but to convert it into revenue because this is more beneficial given the state of our country where we are in need of funds,’ he noted. /atm