Enrile: No car smuggling in Port Irene

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said Wednesday that second-hand, not luxury cars from Japan, are being delivered to Port Irene in Cagayan province. "It's true second-hand vehicles are delivered to Port Irene, but they're not luxury," Enrile told radio station dzMM. The senator, however, denied that the vehicles are being delivered illegally to the Cagayan Freeport Zone (CEZ). It is unclear what the role of Enrile is in CEZ. But the senator hails from Cagayan province. "There's no smuggling. I told the customs there to throw smuggled vehicles into the sea or return them to where they came from," he said. Enrile added that the shippers of the cars being brought to the port pay appropriate taxes and duties, "unlike in Subic where there's outright smuggling." The senator made the clarification after the American Chamber of Commerce came... [read full story]