CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Bureau of Customs (BOC) have filed smuggling charges against the alleged gunrunner from whose possessions carjacked and smuggled luxury vehicles and motorcycles have been recovered recently.
Deputy Customs Collector for Northern Mindanao Marvin Mison filed on Monday afternoon smuggling charges before the City Prosecutor’s Office against Lynard Allan Bigcas, said City Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag.
Macauyag said Mison charged Bigcas with violation of Republic Act 1937 (Tariff and Customs Code); violation of Executive Order 156, Series of 2002 (Providing for a Comprehensive Industrial Policy and Directions for the Motor Vehicle Development Programs and its Implementing Guidelines), against smuggling.
The charges against Bigcas were based on the affidavits of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents who were among those who raided the alleged smuggler and gunrunner’s residences in Talakag, Bukidnon, and in barangay Kauswagan, this city.
Meanwhile, the City Treasurer’s Office here said Bigcas has no business permit for his buy-and-sell business.
Mison said the City Treasurer’s Office’s statement proved that Bigcas did not pay taxes, which “gives us [BOC] the jurisdiction to confiscate [the luxury vehicles and motorcycles] in favor of the government.”
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said Bigcas has to exert all efforts to convince him and other congressmen that he had no knowledge that the cars he were selling were all carjacked.
“We are not convinced that he was a buyer in good faith,” he said.
Rodriguez also said Bigcas may be a member of a US-based criminal organization that buys carjacked vehicles and traded them in the Philippines.
During a press conference at the Pryce Plaza Hotel on May 13, Bigcas denied he was a smuggler and gun-runner.
“I’m not into firearms. I’m into racing bikes. I bought the vehicles. I’m proud of these stuff. I’ve worked hard in the US and these were my trophies,” he told journalists.
His lawyer, Jose Alejandro Pallugna, also said, “Most of these cars have been in the country for a long time,” referring to the vehicles seized by the NBI.
