Rodrigo Duterte was on hand for a 68-car smashup of luxury automobiles Monday that the Philippines president claimed were illegally smuggled to the country. Duterte is in the midst of a controversial crackdown on government smuggling and corruption, his office said in a Facebook release.
In the statement and video taken at Port Irene in Santa Ana, Cagayan, Duterte officials said the estimated cost of all the destroyed vehicles was $5.3 million and motorcycles worth another $360,000.
A backhoe and bulldozer rolled over the vehicles in front of a crowd that included Duterte and Secretary Raul Lambino, who is the current administrator and chief executive officer of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, according to the Facebook statement.
But not all of the smuggled vehicles were destroyed, according to the Philippines Star. In a speech Tuesday, Duterte said that 10 seized Hummers and vans should be given to the Philippines National Police and Armed Forces.
"I said do not destroy [these] because I'll give [these] to the military and the police for their use," Duterte said in the speech. "So you'll have Hummers. We've been wanting those for so long."
He said that the vans will be given to surrounding Cagayan towns and cities, according to the Star.
Duterte said this past February that he would no longer allow the auction of smuggled luxury cars because he believes importers were taking advantage of the process to skirt paying the full amount of custom duties, the Star reported.
He then oversaw the destruction of 20 illegally imported vehicles at the Bureau of Customs headquarters in Manila, the Philippines Star reported at the time. The brands destroyed in that demolition included a Pajero, BMW, Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes, Ford Explorer, Corvette Stingray, and Lexus.
BBC News reported in June that Duterte's war on drugs, in which alleged murders of suspected drug dealers and users have been common, has been controversial. Rights groups charge that 12,000 people have died since he took office, but the government said 4,000 suspected drug users and dealers have died since the campaign against drugs started in July 2016.
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