Condemnation moro-moro
THE “condemnation process” (in Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales’ words) that turned 18 smuggled cars into a pile of scrap at the Subic Freeport on Thursday elicited mixed reactions from the public. This does not surprise us since the government sent mixed messages.The destruction of the cars should have been one of a series of messages that the Arroyo administration should be sending wrongdoers. The object should be to persuade them that the leadership is now following the tenets of “conviction politics.” By those tenets what is right must always be upheld. What is wrong must be put down and parties responsible for the misdeeds, no matter who they are, should be punished.
As it happened, the show that was meant to tell smugglers—and their partners inside the Customs bureau—that their schemes will no longer be profitable, turned out to be just a bit better than a moro-moro.
In the first place, the President’s much publicized presence in the “condemnation process” did not happen. It was Mrs. Arroyo herself who had ordered the destruction of the smuggled cars. And the Palace had announced that she wanted the demolition shown on nationwide TV assure the public that the vehicles were indeed destroyed and not replaced with substitutes. In other words to make sure that the “condemnation process” would not be a sham.
Malacañang also stressed that the whole exercise would be staged dramatically to drive the message home that her administration was now truly serious in putting an end once and for all to smuggling, especially in the free ports.
In the second place, the cars destroyed were not the really high-priced ones that were on the front pages of the dailies.
Only seven of the 18 cars destroyed were luxury vehicles —a two-door Mitsubishi GTO, three BMW X5, one BMW 35i, one Lincoln Navigator and one Chevrolet Starcraft. The rest were six Toyota Estima, one Toyota Caldina, two Hyundai Grandeur, one Nissan Serena Vanette and one Mitsubishi VR-II.
The original expensive cars that made the papers and primetime news these past days were spared.
A Ferrari, a Lambhorgini, a Porsche Carrera, a Porsche Cayenne and BMW cars, with an average cost each of about P18 million were not flattened. Fourteen other luxury cars—including Corvettes, Porsches, Audis and Cadillacs were spared.
Teves defended the decision not to destroy the original expensive cars, explaining that some of them were the subject of court cases and litigation.
To the pragmatists who hate the idea of wasting money and want the smuggled cars to be auctioned off, Teves said “the deterrent effect on smuggling, the benefit that will be generated by our domestic industry, and the signal that we want to convey that we are serious about addressing this smuggling issue will outweigh the initial effect of the loss in revenues.”
We agree completely. For it is true, as alleged, that when these cars are sold at auction they end up being bought for favorable prices by the smugglers themselves!
We hope the next time a show is organized to show the government’s political will against corruptors, it does not become a disaster like this one.
