THE head of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Region 7, Alex Leyson, was relieved by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza pending investigation into smuggled luxury and sports cars.

The vehicles were recently seized in Makati City for alleged violation of Customs regulations.

Mendoza said that the department’s Security and Law Enforcement Service (ISLES) will conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged involvement of Leyson and several officials of LTO Region 7. They allegedly issued registration papers to the luxury vehicles, said to have been smuggled through Customs.

Also included in the investigation are LTO offices in Toledo, Mandaue, Cebu, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu Cities, all in Region 7.

According to Mendoza, criminal and administrative charges will be filed against those who will be found responsible in supposedly faking the car registration papers, depending upon the result of the investigation conducted by the ISLES.

“I have given the DOTC-ISLES five working days to conduct the investigation and submit the investigation report to my office,” Mendoza said in a statement Thursday.

The DOTC will also conduct a review on the procedure in the registration of imported luxury vehicles in order to formulate a more stringent measures and safety nets.

Operatives of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) seized 84 luxury cars, 81 of which were allegedly imported illegally, from Auto Sports 24 Corp., an auto repair shop in Pasong Tamo, Makati City, last December.

PASG head undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr. said the vehicles were worth “hundreds of millions of pesos.”

Out of the 84 vehicles, 81 were found lacking the necessary documents to prove that they were imported into the country legally.

PASG members, armed with a warrant of seizure and detention, raided the Makati establishment and seized 21 BMWs, 16 Mercedes Benzes, 11 Porsche sports cars, four Jaguars, three Volvos, and a Lamborghini. Ferraris, Carera, Boxter, Land Cruisers, Range Rovers, Cherokee and a Mini Cooper were also reportedly recovered.

Villar said the seized Lamborghini alone was considered a hot car as its owner could not present a single document to prove it was legally brought in. Villar said the car’s license plate was also found to have been issued to another legally registered vehicle.

Nadji Kasauf, one of the foreign officials of Auto Sports 24, said their firm specializes on repairing high-end vehicles.

 PASG chief for operations Edmund Arugay said he will give the vehicles’ owners a chance to present documents on the vehicles’ importation. “Otherwise, these vehicles will be forfeited in favor of the government,” he said.

THE government will focus its investment road shows in the region as “it is where the money is right now” and also to save on cost this year.

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) is gunning for a 5-percent to 6-percent growth in rice production for 2008 on the back of the expansion in irrigated areas and farmlands planted to palay.

THE Development Bank of the Philippines is ready to offer a special hedge fund for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that would protect their dollar remittances from a strengthening peso over a specified period of time, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said Thursday.

THE head of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Region 7, Alex Leyson, was relieved by Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza pending investigation into smuggled luxury and sports cars.

MUNICIPAL fishermen in Cebu who severely suffered economic dislocation because of the oil and gas exploration at the Tañon Strait may not get any compensation, a nongovernment fisheries organization warned.

DAVAO CITY—Government and tourism industry players should drum up more attractions and create more festivities to serve as toppings to its durable attraction of cheap and fresh food and other existing amenities of travel.