This makes that last article we did on cars getting crushed look like absolute child's play...
The Philippines don't mess around these days when it comes to keeping within the confines of the law, just ask President Rodrigo Duterte. He's sure to say that the country is cracking down more on the drug scene than anyone else on the planet.
And there's a lot of political issues with those stories (I'm half Filipino myself, so pardon the tangent), but what videos like the above showcase is that Duterte isn't simply after drug dealers.
The cars above were all reportedly smuggled into the Philippines illegally without taxes being paid. Apparently this is a bit of a problem the country faces, and so to showcase that criminals 'better watch out', 20 illegal cars were chosen, lined up in an empty lot, and smooshed into the ground by a bulldozer.
Photos / AP
The cars themselves are a true smorgasbord (mixture of car cultures is somewhat similar to ours). There's Euro luxury in the form of numerous Mercedes-Benzes, Audis, BMWs, and a Jaguar S Type; there's a new-gen Ford Explorer and a couple of Pajeros, there's a Nissan 350Z, and at the very end a seemingly mint white Chevrolet Corvette C3.
My stance here is the same as it's been in the past; this is all just idiotic wasteful nonsense.
The irony of course is that those who smuggle cars may not necessarily even be the recipient at the end of it, meaning that someone waiting on their mint Corvette or S Class. The other problem in this is that the car smuggling trade comes off the back of the country's rather high tax on cars.
This is part of the country's drive to fund new infrastructure, which it probably needs, especially in traffic mess known as Manila. But whether this is the right way to go about matters is another matter entirely.