The Philippines government is destroying supercars... again.
You may remember last year when the despotic Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte destroyed a reported $5.5 million of luxury vehicles in what was described as an 'Anti-Corruption Drive.' This time around the Philippines media covered the destruction of one of Maranello's finest, a Ferrari 360 Spider with Grigio Alloy paint. According to the report, the destruction of the Italian gem was performed as "as a warning to smugglers," at a compound on the Port of Manila on Tuesday. For the painfully ritualistic destruction of the Ferrari 360, a bulldozer drove over the top of it and officials made sure the TV cameras were there as well so we can watch.
Gulf News Asia gives more detail, explaining that the "Ferrari soft-top convertible with an estimated price of P7 million [approx. $137,000] was brought into the country in May with some of its parts detached in an apparent bid to skirt payment of taxes."
After the ceremony, Customs Commissioner Rey said: "The vehicle was wrongly declared as auto parts, to avoid payment of the right taxes."
Those taxes are, of course, very high and the import is highly regulated. Some research tells us that there's a 40% customs duty to get a car imported to the Philippines, then around a 10% federal tax, and then another tax based on the number of cylinders in the car's engine that can range anywhere from 15-100%.
That means whoever was trying to avoid tax by bringing the 360 in falsely declared as parts were avoiding over $50,000 on the customs duty alone. By the time they had paid the rest, it would probably be as much, or more, than the car is actually worth.
As bad as the Philippines leadership is, this is par for the course in many places for cars being imported illegally. It's just sad that the Ferrari 360 does now actually match the paperwork.
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