LTO-7 to auction 17 sedans, 30 vans, 320 motorcycles

These are part of the overstaying, impounded vehicles that will be auctioned in November.

Overstaying impounded motorcycles, vans and sedan cars will be available for auction early in November, an official of the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7) announced on Wednesday, August 31.

The vehicles, according to LTO-7 Regional Director Victor Emmanuel Caindec, consist of at least 17 sedans, 30 vans and 320 motorcycles which were apprehended by the agency for violations that are mostly related to the vehicles’ registration documents.

Caindec said that the vehicles have stayed in their storage facility for more than six months.

According to Caindec, it is stipulated in their procedural guidelines that an impounded vehicle may be disposed by the agency if it remains unclaimed six months after its apprehension.

“They have been there [in our impounding site] for the longest time already and ang uban nangadaot na man gani. We have a COA (Commission on Audit) report that has been recurring nga ipa-dispose na gyod na. But it has been there, nangalata na man gani na ang uban nga mga units diha,” Caindec said.

“We have notified their owners I guess they have fully understood the implication of not paying the fines. We will go to the auction proper since naa na may clearance from COA (Commission on Audit),” Caindec said.

Caindec added that the government has been spending its resources for keeping the impounded vehicles and COA has opined that the vehicles should be disposed to recover the losses of the government.

For a vehicle owner to claim his impounded vehicle, he should pay the fines due all of his recorded violations and the storage fee for the time that the vehicle was impounded.

“In my memory, for a very long time yes [this is the first time that LTO will do an auction of the impounded vehicles],” Caindec said.

Caindec said that a disposal committee will be formed to assess the starting bid for each of the vehicles. He said that the committee will consider the resources spent by LTO for the storage of the vehicle plus the fines of the owners’ violations in coming up with the starting bid.

The proceeds of the auction, Caindec said, will go back to the trust fund of the national government.

LTO-7 rented a property in C. Padilla Street in Cebu City for the impounded vehicles for P380,000 a month – an amount which Caindec said could have been spent for more productive use. The lease contract between the property owner and the LTO expired yesterday, October 31.

The Cebu Provincial government, Caindec said, has already allowed the agency to use a 3,000-square meter property in Barangay Banilad in Cebu City as their new impounding area for free.

“It was very expensive. Unya karon nga dunay libre dili gihapon nato i-dispose? I-dispose gyod na nato kay we will also be needing the space for newly apprehended vehicles,” he added.

Caindec said that the decongesting of the new impounding area was also in preparation for an expected full-swing operation of the Interagency Council on Traffic (IACT) that will be operating in Cebu next week.

“IACT, which will be under a new head, will be arriving here after the holidays. Once we convene with the IACT here, our intention is to help manage the highway. So we will go back to apprehending colorums. We will go back to being more aggressive sa smoke belching, illegal parking.,” the director said.

“We are already exploring options on who we will tap para maka-tow ta og sakyanan sa highway,” he added.