(Eagle News) — “Baseless.”
This was how Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon described the allegations of Senator Panfilo Lacson the former Navy man received a P107-million “pasalubong,” supposedly based on an account by Customs chief Isidro Lapeña.
In a statement, Faeldon said Lacson had “zero evidence” to back up the claims he received the money when he took the helm of the Bureau of Customs in May 2016.
He also accused the senator of “cowardly hid(ing) behind parliamentary immunity.”
Lacson publicly said Faeldon received a P100-million pasalubong during a privilege speech in August.
Under the law, accusations made during a privilege speech cannot be used against the person who made them in the first place.
But this latest accusation was leveled by Lacson against Faeldon in a television interview.
“That has been the tired and tiring modus operandi of this smuggler’s dad, who the public well remembers to have self-confessed to being obsessed (nahuhumaling) with Capt. Faeldon,” Faeldon said.
He was referring to the senator’s son Pampi Lacson.
Faeldon noted that the 67 cement importations in 14 months of the younger Lacson’s company, Bonjorno Trading, amounted “in the aggregate sum of P4.5 billion.”
“Propaganda”
“Instead of tiring accusations, why don’t you just tell the public about your smuggling activities…,” Faeldon told the senator.
He said that if the elder Lacson “truly believe(s) (his) own propaganda…the courts are open.”
“File all the cases your obsessed mind can imagine. Let the courts decide,” he said.
Last month, Lacson filed charges of economic sabotage, graft and grave misconduct against Faeldon before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The charges stem from Faeldon’s alleged role in the release of P34.04 million worth of rice in Cagayan de Oro in May despite the absence of permits, among others.
Faeldon remains detained at the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant at Arms for his subsequent refusal to attend Senate hearings on corruption in the BoC, and on the P6.4-billion drug shipment that slipped through the country via Customs express lanes in May.
