The owner of the smuggled red Bugatti Chiron sports car voluntarily surrendered the luxury vehicle to the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
The 165-million super sports car that the BOC was looking for was surrendered to the agency’s Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) on Friday, Feb. 9.
This happened a week after the bureau asked the public for more information about two smuggled luxury cars seen in Pasay, Pasig, Muntinlupa, and Cavite.
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Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio praised the quick result of the hot pursuit, as it led to the surrender of one of the cars that had no import documents.
“This shows what we can achieve by working together. This is a big win for the Bureau as we are working toward curbing smuggling of all kinds and making sure our borders are secured from these activities,” Rubio said.
Customs Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Group Juvymax Uy said the red Bugatti was surrendered to the joint BOC team at a residence in Ayala Alabang Village in Muntinlupa City, where the red sports car had been concealed.
“Our intelligence is that the red Bugatti had been stored in a house in Alabang. Since we shared the information about the two cars publicly, it got harder for the owners to drive these anywhere,” he said.
The registered owners of the two units of the 2023 model sports car—one colored blue (with plate number NIM 5448) and one red (with plate number NIM 5450)—are Chinese nationals.
The BOC is still establishing the cars’ country of origin and whether they are brand new or secondhand at the time of their importation.
BOC-CIIS Director Verne Enciso said that the Bureau had already asked the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to investigate how the cars were given registration papers despite not having the proper importation documents.
“Of course, we want to get to the bottom of this. It’s not just about having the sports car in our possession now since it entered the country illegally, but it’s also about understanding how this happened and how such a car was registered despite having no import documents. We want to know who allowed this to happen,” he stressed.
“Our job is not yet done. The blue Bugatti is still out there. We will find it in due time,” Enciso added.
The cars, which cost around P165 million each without customs duties and taxes, have been investigated by the BOC since November 2023 after receiving “derogatory information” about them.
Early this week, the BOC asked for information about the cars and said that cash rewards await the informers or whistleblowers.
This is in accordance with Section 1512 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and CAO 03-2022, which provides a cash reward of 20 percent of the actual revenue collected.
Despite surrendering the car, the owner will still face charges for violating Section 1400 in relation to Section 1113 of the CMTA.