More imported used cars arrive at Cagayan freeport

By Charlie Lagasca

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya - – More than 200 imported used cars arrived at the freeport of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) on Monday, the third shipment to arrive at the port since a local court allowed the resumption of importation of second-hand motor vehicles last November. 

Jaime Vicente of Feniz International Inc., one of the major used car importers at CEZA, said the latest shipment, which arrived at Port Irene in Santa Ana, Cagayan on Monday, consisted of 234 units, 90 percent of which were Hyundai Starex vans.

“The rest of the units are trucks, buses, sport utility vehicles and sedans,” said Vicente, president of the Automotive Rebuilders Industry of Cagayan, the umbrella organization of accredited used car importers in the economic zone.

Monday’s shipment was the third at Port Irene since last December when the Cagayan court ruled as “impliedly repealed” former President Arroyo’s Executive Order (EO) 156 that banned the importation of used vehicles.

In his decision, Aparri Judge Neljoe Cortez said Arroyo’s EO 418, which modified the tariff nomenclature and rates of import duty on used motor vehicles, superseded EO 156. 

Cortez said EO 418, which was issued on April 4, 2005, “rendered inoperative the ban on used motor vehicles” as contained in EO 156 issued on Dec. 12, 2002.

The first used car shipment, consisting of 347 units, entered Port Irene last Dec. 14. This was followed last Jan. 3 with 266 units. Most of the units, Fenix said, were “low-end” ones.

The Bureau of Customs recently named Fenix as 28th among the country’s top-revenue paying car importers.