SMUGGLING charges were filed by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Thursday against Lynard Allan Bigcas, the businessman who allegedly imported luxury cars and motorcycles through the Mindanao Container Terminal.

Also charged were the registered owners of some of the 29 “smuggled” vehicles and big bikes, including Noeh Alcala, Gilbert Omolon, Luke Alcala, Lyann Bigcas and Joshua Bigcas, all residents of Talakag, Bukidnon.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said they were also charged with falsification of public documents for registering the vehicles with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) under their names without first securing certificates of payment from the BOC.

“A certificate of payment is an authenticating document issued by the bureau in favor of importers who have paid the duties and taxes on their imported vehicle,” Alvarez said in a news conference.

The vehicles were seized by National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operatives during a raid on May 9.

Records showed that the “illegal importations” of Bigcas and the other respondents were made before July 2010, or when Alvarez was newly appointed as BOC chief.

According to Alvarez, Director Esteban Baltazar of LTO Northern Mindanao recently told a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Customs and Related Laws that the vehicles the NBI seized from Bigcas were registered at their offices in Tubod, Lanao del Norte, and Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, in 2009 and early part of 2010.

Bigcas said in an earlier congressional hearing that the “chopper” or a big motorcycle that was allegedly stolen from Holywood scriptwriter Skip Woods had been “parked in his father’s house for almost three years.”

Customs Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez said there were no documents that could support the allegation that the seized vehicles were cleared by Customs agents as luxury vehicles and motorbikes.

“The smuggled cars and big bikes were most likely withdrawn from Customs jurisdiction after being misdeclared as something else,” said Chavez, who is also the executive director of the BOC’s Run-After-The-Smugglers (RATS) Group.

Alvarez said it would ask the local courts and the NBI to cede custody of the confiscated items to the BOC.

“The multiple violations by the respondents of the antismuggling provisions of the Tariff and Customs Code warrant the forfeiture of all subject vehicles in favor of the [BOC],” the Customs bureau said.