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Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star
February 12, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — After two failed auctions, the notorious Rolls Royce equipped with umbrellas and seized from the Discaya couple has been sold to the founder of a tourist attraction in Baguio City.
Pio Velasco, founder and chief executive officer of family-owned theme park Igorot Stone Kingdom, bought the black Rolls Royce Cullinan 2023 for P29.026 million, slightly higher than the floor price of P29.025 million set by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Feb. 11.
Velasco paid for the car, which would be put under the name of the company operating the attraction, using a manager’s check, according to Chris Noel Bendijo, deputy chief of staff of the BOC Office of the Commissioner.
Velasco told reporters that he bought the car “first to preserve a piece of Philippine history, second as a form of investment and third, to show to the world that Igorots are also aware of Philippine history, that we also care and we would like to help the Philippine government.”
“This Rolls Royce opened the floodgates and the national interest over (the Discayas’) decision to buy this for P52 million or P42 million because of an umbrella,” he added.
Velasco referred to the statement of contractor Sarah Discaya, who bragged about the vehicle and the umbrella inside before she and her husband Curlee were implicated in anomalous flood control deals.
The company may display the luxury car at the theme park “to make people aware that corruption doesn’t pay,” Velasco said.
Asked by The STAR about the possibility that no one would drive the car, Velasco said he and his family might try to use it.
“Considering Baguio’s terrain, if the car can handle it, let’s see,” he added.
Velasco said his family and friends “pooled our resources to come up with this amount.”
The Rolls Royce previously went through two auctions, wherein it was offered at over P45 million and P36 million, respectively.
Meanwhile, the blue Bentley Bentayga 2022 remained unsold despite fetching an over P11.1-million price tag during its third auction, a drop from previous amounts of over P17 million and P13 million.
Six other Discaya-owned vehicles – a Lincoln Navigator 2024, a GMC Yukon Denali 2022, a Cadillac Escalade 2021, a Maserati Levante Modena 2022, a GMC Yukon XL Denali 2022 and a Cadillac Escalade ESV 2022 – that were auctioned off for the first time were also declared “failed biddings” by the BOC committee handling auctions.
Also failing to attract bidders were two Bugatti Chiron sports cars – both reportedly smuggled – despite being priced at over P160 million and P149 million, respectively, already half the previous floor prices of over P334 million and P312 million in 2024.
At the latest auction, the BOC earned P29.041 million from the sale of the Rolls Royce.
It was an addition to the over P47 million in revenues from auctioning off the black matte Mercedes Benz G63 AMG (2022), red Mercedes-Benz G500 (2019) Brabus, the black Lincoln Navigator (2021), Toyota Tundra (2022) and an orange Toyota Sequoia (2023) last year.
Aside from Igorot Stone Kingdom, television host Willie Revillame and R33 Car Exchange Corp. – both represented by a single person – were qualified for the bidding, but they did not send representatives, Bendijo said.
Bendijo said the BOC would not condemn or destroy the luxury cars seized from the Discayas, despite it being one of the options of the agency in disposing of the vehicles.
Luxury cars that remain unsold at public auctions would depreciate by a maximum of 20 percent each year, he noted.
The BOC has set the next auction for Feb. 25.
Bendijo said the BOC could issue a warrant of seizure and detention against the vehicles allegedly linked to former congressman Zaldy Co “if not this week, maybe next week.” — Artemio Dumlao
