DOJ to place suspected smuggler Bigcas under Immigration watch list

The Department of Justice (DOJ) will place suspected used vehicle smuggler Lynard Allan Bigcas under the Bureau of Immigration (BI) watch list after he failed to attend a House probe on the case on Monday morning. DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima said she has already asked Chief State Prosecutor Claro Arellano to draft the order that will prevent Bigcas from leaving the country without clearance from the department. "The chief state counsel is now drafting a watch list order against Mr. Bigcas to prevent his possible flight because he is now under investigation," De Lima told reporters after the hearing. She added that she has already contacted Immigration chief Ricardo David on her plan to place Bigcas on the bureau’s watch list. The Bureau of Immigration is an attached agency under the Department of Justice. The suspected motor vehicle smuggler failed to show up during the House committee on ways and means motu propio investigation on how supposed "hot cars" and motor vehicles from the US entered ports in Mindanao after he supposedly failed to secure a flight to Manila from Cagayan de Oro. During last week’s hearing, Bigcas denied any attempt to smuggle the vehicle parts to the Philippines, saying he was not aware that he had to pay taxes for shipping the goods to the country. Bigcas is currently facing charges of illegal possession of firearms at the Bukidnon Provincial Prosecutors’ Office after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raid of his property in the area yielded high-powered firearms and luxury vehicles. — RSJ, GMA News