THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) last week filed smuggling charges against businessman Lynard Allan Bigcas and five others for importing 29 luxury motorcycles and cars from the US without the proper permits.
Charged before the Department of Justice were Bigcas, and the registered owners of some of the vehicles and big motorcycles, namely, Noeh Alcala, Gilbert Omolon, Luke Alcala, Lyann Bigcas and Joshua Bigcas, who all hail from Talakag, Bukidnon.
All were accused of falsification of public documents for registering the vehicles under their names despite their failure to secure certificates of payment from the BOC.
The National Bureau of Investigation had earlier raided the warehouse of Bigcas and said the high-end vehicles were stolen from their owners in the US and smuggled into the Philippines last year.
Customs Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez said there were no documents on record that would support allegations that the seized vehicles cleared customs as luxury vehicles and motorbikes.
“What that means is that the smuggled cars and big bikes were most likely withdrawn from customs jurisdiction after being misdeclared as something else,” explained Chavez, who is also the executive director of the BOC’s Run-After-The-Smugglers Group.
He said the BOC will petition NBI and the courts to immediately cede to the BOC the custody of the confiscated vehicles against which warrants of seizure and detention were issued last May 9, 2011.
