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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Leads Crashing of Smuggled Luxury Cars
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is leading a hard stance on smuggling, oversaw the destruction of smuggled luxury cars last Monday at Port Irene on the town of Sta. Ana in Cagayan Province, Philippines. This is the second time that the Filipino leader led the crashing of luxury cars—the first one happened in March this year.
A total of 68 contraband luxury cars were bulldozered on Monday. The total amount was $5.5 million for the cars. Another set of eight luxury motorbikes valued at $370,000 were also destroyed in front of the President.
The destruction of the cars was part of the Philippine government’s anti-corruption and anti-smuggling programs. Efforts to curb the corruption in the government have been rampant since Duterte took the seat at Malacanang.
Among the luxury cars crashed during Monday’s program were the Lamborghini Gallardo, Porsche Carrera, and Mercedes-Benz SLK 280. Among the newest condemned vehicles were car models from 2006. These makes are the same ones destroyed during a similar operation in March.
Though many believe that the Philippine government should have just sold the luxury cars for profit, it has been Duterte’s policy to destroy smuggled cars because circulating it again in public will still rake in profit for the smugglers. He stated that this operation will discourage smugglers.
On social media, netizens raved about Duterte’s actions against the smuggled cars. While there were past reports about these luxury cars being laundered off to line the pockets of government officials, the President took a time off from his busy schedule to make sure that the cars were destroyed and nobody would profit from them.
In a press release, he said that “You have to show to the world that you have a viable place of investment and business.”
“And the only way to show it is that you are productive and that you have the economy to absorb the productivity of the population,” he added.