Philippine’s Duterte Crushes Smuggled Porsches, Corvettes, BMWs And Jags

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had bulldozers destroy $1.2 million worth of smuggled cars at the Bureau of Customs, days after promising to dispose of vehicles brought into the Southeast Asian country illegally.

Some of the cars were luxury models, valued as high as $115,000, reports Reuters. Yet, it took just minutes for them to be reduced to nothing more than scrap metal.

“Give it to the buyer of steel,” said Duterte. “They cannot have cars like that. But they can get something, make toys out of it.”

Last year alone, the Bureau of Customs seized $2.93 million worth of smuggled cars, part of a greater $866 million in seized goods according to government data.

“It does not pay to evade taxes in the Philippines so might as well stop trying, because you will never succeed,” said Duterte’s finance minister, Carlos Dominguez, just as 20 vehicles were about to be destroyed at a Manila port. Another 10 were bulldozed in ports in the cities of Davao and Cebu.

Among the nameplates that got destroyed were classics like the Corvette Stingray, plus lots of vehicles wearing premium badges from BMW, Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes and Lexus.

The Philstar reports that a P13.3 million ($258,000) McLaren supercar was also among the luxury cars seized by the Bureau of Customs, although there is no confirmation on whether or not it was destroyed.

Thanks to Felix!