The Mandaue City Government is preparing to sell through public auction more than 2,000 long-impounded vehicles due to the overcrowded impounding facility.
Hyll Retuya, head of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team), announced that next month, the Mandaue City Traffic Board will convene to formally declare these vehicles as “legally abandoned” under a city ordinance from 2020.
Under this law, any vehicle that remains unclaimed for six months can be considered abandoned after undergoing the proper legal process.
According to Retuya, the vehicles stored at the facility include motorcycles, tricycles, private cars, and even some that are just car shells.
Some of these have been impounded since 2015, 2016, and 2017, while others date back to 2025.
“The impounding area is really full, and we need to clear it out because thousands of vehicles have been left there for years,” Retuya said.
The Mandaue Government has implemented three separate amnesty and reclaiming programs in past years to allow owners to retrieve their vehicles, but many still did not claim them. The cleanup is also in response to an observation by the Commission on Audit (COA), which flagged Team regarding the stored vehicles and uncollected storage fees.
To ensure a legal and orderly auction, the city is coordinating with the office of Congresswoman Emmarie “Lolypop” Ouano-Dizon.
Once the Traffic Board issues the official declaration, the Disposal Committee will decide the final rules of the auction, whether to sell the vehicles individually or in bulk.
Aside from generating additional revenue for the Mandaue Government, the auction will also help Team personnel manage new impounded vehicles more easily and efficiently.
