Car smuggling uncovered by FBI a smokescreen for arms trade?

By LEONARD D. POSTRADO

May 5, 2011, 7:15pm

MANILA, Philippines — Luxury car dealer Allan Bigcas – the man who was first reported being hunted down for alleged smuggling of hot cars, including the high end motorcycle of a Hollywood writer, from the United States – has been keeping the United States government anxious for five years now.

The cars, however, were the least on the minds of members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and United States Homeland Security (USHS). The two US agencies had been tracking down a seemingly dangerous trade that could somehow become a threat to the national security of the world: Weapons trade.

Based on the report of Orion Services, Inc. (OSI), the investigative and security consulting firm in the country that Hollywood writer Skip Woods tapped to find his missing Chopper (a type of motorcycle), the US had been tracking down for several years now as it was reported that the high-powered firearms in the US were secretly being shipped by a so-called “Latino” group to the country.

“The luxury cars that were seized from the house of Bigcas were just icing on the cake. What FBI and US Homeland Security (USHS) were after is the weapons trade that Bigcas is allegedly engaged in,” the OSI Agent handling the case, who refused to be named for security reasons, told the Manila Bulletin.

“There had been reports that weapons were being smuggled out of the US soil to the Philippines and were being sold to Muslim clans in Mindanao. The US Homeland Security had also received reports that the arms were also being sold to secessionists in the region,” he added.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Magtanggol Gatdula confirmed the bureau received the same report from both US agencies. He said he even personally went to Cagayan de Oro to spearhead the investigation.

The NBI, the USHS, FBI and OSI are now racing against time to track down Bigcas, whom they say will be vital for their operation that may prevent acts of terrorism in the future.

Forwarding business to weapons dealer

Before he allegedly entered in a smuggling business, Bigcas reportedly opened in a forwarding-shipping company in Houston, Texas, United States, which he called ALBIGs – a company name derived from combining his real name.

“He was used to delivering goods and gained lots of connections in the United States, particularly with several notorious gangs, like a mafia version of the Latinos,” the OSI agent said.

Due to his alleged connections with gangs, the OSI agent said Bigcas reportedly left his job and soon engaged himself in underground business, particularly in illegal shipping of armaments and hot cars that were stolen in the US.

In the country, he also opened his own buy-and-sell store which, according to the OSI agent, sells vehicles from the United States.

“It was in the report that alleged smuggling of hot cars is only secondary to the weapons trade he is engaged in,” he said.

Using his company, the source said in an interview that Bigcas ships the alleged smuggled vehicles to the country via a Texas-Singapore-Cagayan de Oro route with the help of several government officials from the Bureau of

Customs (BoC), Land Transportation Office (LTO), and the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG).

“He was an influence peddler. Bigcas bragged that it will be difficult for him to get caught as he had ‘padrinos’ from the Customs and LTO,” he said.

What authorities didn't know was that Bigcas stored several powerful arms inside the vehicles as Customs and LTO officials do not bother to check the goods he was shipping.

“For five years, the FBI and USHS had been trying to catch him but because of the people he knows and the right government official to talk to, he was able to slip in and out of the country,” he said.

If not for Facebook

Last year, Hollywood writer Woods reported to Houston Police that his $80,000 Martin Bros. Chopper had been stolen by car thieves. US authorities immediately fanned a search throughout the US with hopes of recovering the writer's motorcycle.

Woods, like any other victim, traced the bike theft to the so-called “Latino" gang that ships expensive American-made motorcycles like Harleys and his Martin Bros. to Asia via Mexico and Los Angeles, the OSI agent said.

The report that Wood's chopper was in the Philippines was bolstered after seeing the picture of his motorcycle in the Facebook profile of Bigcas. It was from there that Woods sought the service of OSI to recover the missing chopper.

“Woods easily identified his motorcycle because every Chopper has its unique feature that no one altered. It was then that he hired us to track down his chopper,” the OSI agent said.

Orion Services coordinated with Houston PD, the CDO Police, the NBI, and also the US embassy.

In the report submitted to NBI Regional Operation Services Deputy Director Victor Bessat, Agent Wenceslao Gonzalez said the PNP received on April 25, 2011, a report from the FBI about the ongoing illegal and selling of high-caliber firearms and vehicles. The report was confirmed by Supt. Graciano Mijares, Misamis Oriental Police director.

The FBI sought the help of the NBI in acquiring a search warrant and for a possible operation inside properties of Bigcas.

On April 28, a court in Misamis Oriental issued a search warrant, prompting NBI agents to swoop down on the possible areas where Bigcas hid the hot cars.

Cagayan de Oro raid

Last Tuesday, NBI agents stormed the house of Bigcas in Bukidnon and seized at least 22 hot vehicles from the United States that were smuggled into the country through the port of Cagayan de Oro.

Bessat told reporters in an interview that NBI agents raided the house of Bigcas on Santiago Street in Barangay Poblacion Talakag, Bukidnon, at around 3:30 p.m. and discovered the smuggled luxury vehicles believed to be in the FBI’s list of hot cars.

Bessat said the cars were reportedly stolen from Houston, Texas.

Seized were 13 big bikes, a Chevrolet Tahoe, Corvette, 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer, two Yamaha motorcycles, two Honda CRF, a Suzuki GSX 1000 cc, a red RZR Ranger, and two all-terrain vehicles.

NBI agents also recovered an M-16 rifle with 16 live bullets inside the house of Bigcas.

The NBI agents, however, failed to catch Bigcas.

Bessat said some of the vehicles are now kept at the Police Provincial headquarters in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, while some were taken to the NBI Regional Office in Cagayan de Oro.

The Black Book

But apart from the stolen vehicles, joint operatives of the NBI, FBI, Houston Police, OSI, and USHS retrieved from the house of Bigcas a black book listing the vehicles and firearms sold.

He said that some of the names listed in the black book were those of powerful Muslim clans in the region. He refused to give details.

“The black book was a proof needed FBI and USHS that there had been on-going arms trade in the region which the US government feared the most,” he said.

The OSI agent said the black book also serves as a manual showing details on how to steal and transport the vehicles from US to Cagayan de Oro.

Gatdula also refused to divulge any information about the black book, saying they need to verify the data.

On the hunt for Bigcas

In the latest development, joint operatives of the NBI, FBI, USHS, the Philippine National Police and Houston Police Department are now tracking the whereabouts of the group’s kingpin.

The latest report they received was that Bigcas was allegedly hiding with a certain Dimaporo clan.

“They are attempting to find people with high government positions to intercede,” according to the OSI agent.

On the other hand, the joint national and international agencies recovered more high-powered ammunitions and hot cars like several customized Beowulf .50 caliber assault rifle and a stolen Dodge charger from Texas.

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Source: Manila Bulletin

Boracay Atis barred from their ancestral land  By Ma. Ceres P. Doyo Philippine Daily Inquirer PUT ASIDE bleeding-heart sentimentalism and romanticism. Here are questions that are crying out for answers: Why are the Atis, who have lived in Boracaylong before the paradisiacal island became world-renowned, being barred from occupying a piece of land that the government turned over on Feb. 11, 2011 to their community by virtue of a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) made possible by the Indigenous Peoples Republic Act (IPRA)? Why can’t an indigenous community of 46 families whose ancestors called the island their home long, long before the island became a tourist haven, occupy a tiny 2.1-hectare area that has been designated as their home? Why does this area called Dead Forest, which has been declared inalienable and officially declared to be the ancestral domain of the Atis, have non-Ati claimants who do not want to let go? The Atis of Boracay are up against powerful claimants with business interests on the island known for its powder white sand and, in the last decade or so, for being a crowded party island and a hidden paradise no more. They are called Ati in the Visayas, while their counterparts in Luzon are called Aeta, curly haired, shorter and slightly darker versions of our mainly Malay-Chinese-Hispanic selves. They are said to be the original aborigines of our islands. They were here when time began, so to speak, before the Malay, Chinese and Spanish arrivals. But I leave this subject to the anthropologists and historians. The 21st-century reality is that the Atis and many other indigenous peoples (IPs) in the Philippines who, in the past, were marginalized, discriminated against, oppressed and belittled, should now be able to invoke their rights that have been written into the Constitution, among them, their right to remain in and protect their ancestral domains. Making this happen has not been easy on the part of the IPs. This 21st-century reality is now being put to the test in Boracay where every square foot is much coveted by moist-eyed real estate speculators and tourism magnates. Will the Atis have a place in this booming tourist destination, or will they be forced to go to the Aklan mainland and become homeless wanderers in their own home country? Fifty-year-old Ati woman and community leader Delsa Supitran Justo will not let this happen. She will tell you right away that unlike many of their counterparts in Luzon, the Atis in Boracay do not beg. They fish, farm, go to school, get employed. Although she stopped at Grade 4, all her six children have gone for higher education and her eldest has just finished college with a teaching degree. How can the Atis of Boracay improve their lot if they are denied their home and source of livelihood? On April 26, Justo, Ati chieftain and representative of Indigenous Cultural Community/Indigenous Peoples (ICC/IP) of Boracay, wrote a letter to the National Commission in Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) coursed through its chair Roque A. Agton Jr. about the Atis’ problem. The Atis also filed a complaint against several individuals and sought an injunction with prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop respondents from “further constructing structures and introducing other forms of improvements in the subject area.” And, just as important, “That an order be issued requiring the installation of the (Ati) complainants in the area” covered by the CADT. The area is located in Barangay Manoc-manoc. The NCIP issued the CADT covering the said area in the name of the complainants on Aug. 3, 2010. The formal turnover was held inside a chapel in February 2011. “However,” the Atis wrote, “the complainants are prevented to enter and occupy the property due to the illegal entry and occupation of respondents over the areas within the Ancestral Domain. The ongoing activities and stiff resistance of respondents continue to hamper the efforts of the complainants to lawfully and peacefully recover and possess the area.” Justo flew to Manila last week to meet with me and several of the Atis’ supporters. It is heartening to know that not all businessmen and hotel owners in Boracay are only for profit. The Atis have gotten continuous support from some hotel owners, among them, Hannah Hotel’s Pocholo Morillo and his family who accompanied Justo when she met with me. Also supporting the Atis of Boracay are Sr. Victoria Ostan of the Daughters of Charity and two other nuns who have chosen to live simply among the Atis and journey with them. Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Ben Abadiano, president of Assisi Foundation and founder of Pamulaan Center for Indigenous People’s Education, has thrown his support and plans to set up a school in the Ati community in Boracay. I learned that President Aquino’s sister Viel, who is vice president of Assisi Foundation, is also very supportive of the Atis. Said Morillo who is also the spokesman of the diocese on energy matters, “The Atis need police protection so that they can occupy their ancestral domain.” “The Atis in Boracay go back five generations,” Justo told me in her local language mixed with Ilonggo (Hiligaynon) which I could understand. “We used to occupy the whole island. We planted corn, tobacco and vegetables. We also fished for a living.” And this I fully understood and noted down verbatim. “Panginmatyan namon ini kay amon ini” (We will lay down our lives for this because this land is ours).” In that little spot called the Dead Forest on the island paradise,  “Mabuhi gid kami (We will indeed live).” Thus spoke Delsa Justo, chieftain of her people. Send feedback to cerespd@gmail.com or www.ceresdoyo.com

Ambition 

By Conrado de Quiros

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANG NESTOR used to scavenge in Smoky Mountain before the mountain of trash there was razed down. Driven to live in Bagong Silang, he tried to make ends meet doing this and that, but found it the hardest thing in the world with two kids. Though his wife helped by cooking and hawking food, his family was in constant want. His dream of being able to send his kids to school to help them escape his lot in life remained just that, a dream.

They lived austerely. During his kids’ birthdays, he worked longer hours to try to get them some noodles, but not always successfully. He could not comprehend how people could throw away food so easily, masasarap pa naman, in fastfood and restaurants. It was such utter waste.

What he particularly minded was that there was no toilet where he lived. To relieve yourself, he said, you had to hike for 20 minutes to the nearest public toilet and line up for your turn. A pretty trying experience when you’ve got to go, and which the more desperate solved by settling for the tabi-tabi. A brutish life, with no relief in sight.

But relief did come in the form of a newly opened Gawad Kalinga village in Bagong Silang. Mang Nestor’s was one of 30 families that got awarded a home in that village, a tiny house by the standards of the rich and middle class but a veritable palace in the eyes of the beneficiaries. It had of course the most wondrous thing in the world: a toilet. Or a CR, as Mang Nestor, like other Filipinos, referred to it. Nowhere did the term “comfort room” take on the most literal meanings.

This was one of the things shown in the Hope Ball in Las Vegas where I was last weekend, a fund-raising activity by Fil-Ams that managed to raise enough funds to build homes for 150 more families. A couple of things ran through my mind when I saw this, quite apart of course from the epic contribution GK has been making to solving poverty in the Philippines over the last several years.

The first was to get a glimpse of the ugliness and monstrosity of corruption again. Or to get a new appreciation for President Benigno Aquino III’s “’Pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” Corruption is not abstract, it is concrete—and cruel. Corruption is far more wasteful than throwing away barely touched food in Jollibee and Mang Inasal while the street children sniff rugby to forget their hunger pangs. The other side of things like the AFP spending P800 million to procure bond paper, a city hospital overpricing Mongol pencils 5,000 times, and a governor diverting P25 million to his kid’s wedding is a horde of Mang Nestors who have to hustle their way through life to treat a daughter to some pancit during her birthday or trek a mile or so to relieve themselves of their stomach’s contents and their soul’s cares.

Corruption isn’t just monies being lost God knows where, it is food being taken away from the mouths of the hungry, it is roofs being taken away from the desolate, it is comfort being taken away from the anguished and bereaved. Corruption crushes. Corruption kills. The corrupt and the desperate are to each other as cause and effect. Truly, where there are no pillagers, there are no paupers. Truly,’pag walang corrupt, walang mahirap.

The second thing that flashed through my mind was the grandness of spirit shown by the movement Gawad Kalinga—yes, it is a veritable movement now—and the hope it is giving us. GK’s professed goal is to eradicate poverty in this country by the next decade. That may seem like an impossible dream, a quest more admirable for the scale of its aspiration than for the possibility of its realization. Yet when you come right down to it, why should that be so impossible? 

Why should that be so quixotic?

Ambition, Shakespeare said, should be made of sterner stuff, and you can’t find sterner stuff than the tears of gratitude and joy streaming down the faces of those who have not only been given houses but communities to live in, who have not only been given a roof over their heads but a gladness in their hearts. You can’t find sterner stuff than the 30 families who have been plucked from utter want who now live like human beings in a spot of Bagong Silang, the 150 families who will live like human beings in other spots of Bagong Silang courtesy of what the Fil-Ams raised in just one event in Las Vegas, the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of families that will live like human beings over the next several years in other Bagong Silangs in this country, in other New Births or New Days or New Lives in this country.

I don’t know how Manny Pacquiao’s fight will turn out (he was due to make a pitch for Gawad Kalinga earlier today), but I do know that somebody else has already won a far more magnificent fight for the country and will continue to win far more magnificent fights for the country in the coming years.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff, and none comes sterner than the spirit shown by the people who have dedicated themselves to this. Men and women, young and old, Pinoys and Fil-Ams who have worked tirelessly, eagerly, joyfully to bring the vision of the Philippines freed from want a little closer to reality. It is the exact opposite of the baleful spirit of corruption. Corruption in the end is selfishness, an inability to see beyond oneself or one’s family, an overriding need to secure self and family beyond all others, at the expense of all others. Either the men and women of Gawad Kalinga have gone past that or they have extended the meanings of self and family to include the farthest of the far, the poorest of the poor. They too are self, they too are family, walang iwanan, you don’t leave them behind, you don’t leave anyone behind. That is grandness.

That is ambition.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

P800M AFP bond paper, P25M gov’t fund spent in wedding

COA EXEC BARES MORE FUND SCAMS

By Jun Medina
INQUIRER.net

Most Read

WASHINGTON, DC—Bond paper purchases worth P800 million at the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Mongol pencils overpriced 5,000 times at a city hospital and P25 million in government funds diverted for the wedding expenses of a governor's child that took 16 years to prosecute.

These are some of the unbelievable facets of corruption in the Philippines that whistleblower Heidi Mendoza encountered in the course of her job as a no-nonsense state auditor.

Speaking before a World Bank-sponsored forum on "Effective Auditing as the Bane of Grand Corruption: A Tale from the Front Lines," Mendoza highlighted how corruption deprives people of their rightful share of scarce public resources.

Joining her in the panel was former journalist Sheila Coronel, Columbia University professor on investigative journalism, and former executive director of the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism; and Rick Messick, a senior operations officer of the WB Department of Institutional Integrity, which assists corruption fighters in the bank's client countries.

Mendoza lamented how the AFP allotted more than P800 million on dubious procurement of bond paper, while an ordinary soldier gets only P12.50 in daily subsistence allowance and makes do with substandard combat boots and uniform and bullets that fail to fire.

Mendoza, who was recently appointed commissioner of the Philippine Commission on Audit by President Benigno Aquino III, narrated how it took more than 16 years for the government to prosecute a governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao for misusing some P25 million funds intended for rural infrastructure.

"When I started my audit, I was pregnant, and by the time the Supreme Court rendered a decision on the case, my child was more than 16 years old already," she said.

Mendoza related her experience of being slapped flimsy charges in court by powerful politicians to derail her investigative work.

"The hard part is when an auditor is charged in court because he or she does not get any support from the agency, and then left to fend for himself or herself," she said.

In her case, Mendoza said she was forced to go on leave and to hire a private lawyer to clear her name, using money she took on a salary loan.

Stressing that fighting corruption is not the sole responsibility of government, Mendoza said the people should be involved not only by exposing the corrupt, but also by refusing to be part of any dishonest transaction.

She said the public apathy and the oft-dysfunctional system of prosecution in the country contributes to corruption in society.

Mendoza observes that even a person's excessive focus on the welfare of the family could lead to corruption, because some people in public office tend to fail to draw the distinction between what is public and what is private.

"Love for family should be tempered by an even greater love for country and love of God," said Mendoza, who said it was the prayers and support of so many Filipinos that spurred her to pursue the truth and go after the grafters, even when it entailed grave personal risks.

Mendoza thinks the Aquino administration is determined to weed out corruption by appointing known graft fighters in sensitive positions like the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and COA, among others.

As new COA commissioner, Mendoza will have the actual chance to introduce the much-needed reforms she has studied during her long years as an auditor.

For instance, she said there are proposals to subject to auditing all "pork barrel"—funds appropriated from the national budget to finance local or district projects in order to promote the reelection of politicians.

These projects become a source of corruption in the form of overpricing or even "ghost" or non-existent projects.

Some progressive-minded senators and congressmen are clamoring for the abolition of this so-called “pork politics” because it perpetuates political patronage.

She also said that organizations like the World Bank and civil society should support the work of corruption fighters, in terms of providing training and creating the environment conducive to honesty and transparency in public transactions.

Mendoza shot to national prominence this year after she resigned her job at the Asian Development Bank to pursue massive corruption charges involving former AFP comptroller Carlos Garcia, who admitted to laundering more than P300 million in public funds.

As head of a special audit team assigned by then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, Mendoza helped prosecute retired Major General Garcia in his plunder case in the Sandiganbayan. Mendoza blew the whistle on how Garcia stashed away millions of military funds in his personal accounts.

Mendoza said it was a lonely fight when she testified in the Sandiganbayan, with only her and her husband attending, during which time she was called a liar by Garcia, along with a threat, “there is a time for reckoning."

After Marcelo resigned, the case hit a wall, and Mendoza decided to resign after she failed to get the support of her superiors at the COA.

But things turned around when Garcia’s plunder case was reduced to bribery and money laundering as a result of a questionable plea bargain deal with the Office of the Ombudsman last year.

Mendoza resurfaced and testified before congressional hearings on the plea bargain deal.

The Garcia investigation was actually triggered by events on December 18, 2003, when US Customs agents at the San Francisco International Airport seized $100,000 in cash from Garcia's two sons—Filipino Americans Juan Carlo and Ian Carl—who hid the money in their carry-on luggage.

The brothers explained in identical letters that they brought the money at the request of their parents to pay the tuition and registration fees of their New York-based brother, Timothy Mark, who was accepted at Parsons School, and to pay the initial down payment of a condominium unit near the school. FilAm Star