Lawmaker calls for lifestyle check on Customs official in Cagayan de Oro

MANILA, Philippines - A Mindanao lawmaker called yesterday for a lifestyle check on a Customs official based in Cagayan de Oro City.

Rep. Jose Benjamin Benaldo, who represents the city’s first district, told his colleagues in the House committee on customs, tariff and related taxes that District Collector Lowell Medija of the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Cagayan de Oro may be living beyond his means.

Benaldo claimed that Medija owns several luxury cars, houses and valuable pieces of real estate.

He said the district collector’s bosses in Manila should check on his supposed wealth.

For his part, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro’s second district, asked Customs authorities to check the unabated entry of imported vehicles through ports in the city and Misamis Oriental.

“I have information that many of these vehicles are being smuggled or are not levied the proper duties and taxes to the detriment of the government,” he said.

Another Customs officer in Cagayan de Oro, lawyer Noah Dimaporo, is already in hot water for apparently having transacted with suspected car smuggler Lynard Alan Bigcas, who was placed in the BI watch list yesterday.

Dimaporo said Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez has put him on floating status after his name was mentioned as appearing in the black book the National Bureau of Investigation seized from Bigcas.

According to several entries in the black book, Dimaporo was interested in bike and gun parts, which the suspected car smuggler would supply.

Several other names, including those of a Governor Jalosjos, a Mayor Dimaporo, a Mayor Ali, and a Colonel Pimentel, were found in the document.

The NBI has said it would invite these officials to ask them what transactions they had with Bigcas and if they were involved in smuggling. 

Flights monitored

Bigcas is now in the watch list of the BI after skipping congressional inquiry on illegal importation of luxury vehicles in the country.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) issued the watch list order signed by Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras III as authorized under Department Circular No. 41 issued in May last year.

The DOJ move aims to monitor possible flight of Bigcas since he is still subject of ongoing investigation by the House of Representatives and government agencies. The order is valid for 60 days from yesterday.

Unlike a hold departure order, which can only be issued by courts, the watch list order would allow Bigcas to leave the country but only with his flight monitored by the government.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima issued the watch list order in the course of testifying before the House committee on tariffs and related taxes, which is looking into the seizure of several stolen cars and bikes from Bigcas’ two houses in Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City early this month.

De Lima also confirmed that the NBI had agreed to turn over to US authorities an $80,000 Harley Davidson “chopper” big bike that Bigcas claimed he bought from a Greg Cook of Beaumont, Texas three years ago.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has told the NBI that the bike, owned by Hollywood screenwriter Skip Woods, was stolen in Houston last January.

De Lima said the “chopper” was about to be shipped to the US from a Cebu port when the Bureau of Customs issued a seizure order covering all the vehicles confiscated from Bigcas.

“So, it had to be returned. I understand that it’s now with NBI,” she said.

Rodriguez said even if Customs had not issued a seizure order, the NBI should not have agreed to turn over the bike to US authorities “because it is part of the evidence against the suspected car smuggler.”

Also yesterday, NBI-Cagayan de Oro officers informed the panel that they have filed car and bike smuggling charges against Bigcas with the prosecutors’ offices in Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon.

Responding to questions from Representatives Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite and Reynaldo Umali of Mindoro Oriental, Customs and Land Transportation Office officials said they have no record of registration and payment of import duties for Bigcas’ vehicles. 

BI records show that Bigcas is a “Filipino-American” citizen who lives in Talacag, Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro City.

He was arrested in Cagayan de Oro City early this month by combined elements of the NBI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, which initiated the complaint against him.

Meantime, in an interview at Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City yesterday during the opening ceremonies of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy Associates (FBINAA) 14th Asia Pacific Chapter Training Conference with the NBI, FBI assistant director Joseph Demarest Jr. said that they are conducting a deeper probe into the US operations of Bigcas.

He, however, declined to go into details to make sure that their investigation will not fail.  – With Edu Punay, Sandy Araneta