A shipment of 446 used luxury cars, sport utility vehicles, sedans and vans arrived at Port Irene here on Saturday, even as a controversy continues to rage over the legality of such importations in the face of a Supreme Court ban and despite a moratorium that the government has issued against their registration.
For people unfamiliar with the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport (CSEZFP) here, every mention of this free port, as well as the government agency that is tasked to manage and supervise its operations, brings to mind a visual comparison with the more familiar Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales.
Then Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile was the principal author of a 1994 bill in the House of Representatives, which proposed the creation of the Special Economic Zone and Freeport (Cagayan Freeport), with the aim to boost economic development in northern Philippines.
