Opposition and administration lawmakers want him out of BOC
(Eagle News) — More senators are asking for Malacanang to “show the door” to Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon citing the results of hearings on the P6.4 billion shabu shipment that had passed through the customs bureau without any inspection.
Both opposition and administration senators are calling for his resignation, with both Liberal Party senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Franklin Drilon citing the “bipartisan clamor” for President Rodrigo Duterte to fire him.
“After several hearings in both Houses, there is a clamor for the resignation of Faeldon coming from both administration and opposition senators and congressmen. The bipartisan clamor should be enough basis for Malacanang to show the door to the commissioner and a number of his people,” Pangilinan said in a statement.
So far, the results of the hearings in both houses of Congress showed the alleged “ineptitude” of the BOC under Faeldon which had allowed shipments, including the questionable containers containing crates of shabu from China, to pass by the so-called “green lane” where they no longer pass x-ray machines and inspection of documents.
This was compounded by actions of the BOC and Faeldon after receiving information on one of the containers that contained 605 kilos of shabu which were found in a warehouse in Valenzuela owned by a Chinese trader whom senators later cited in contempt for lying during the senate hearing.
Faeldon did not follow proper procedure, according to the Phillippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) when his men opened the crates and the cylinders containing the shabu, physically handled them, without the presence of the PDEA operatives. They then insisted on their own procedures, contrary to PDEA’s advice. Faeldon opted to listen to the advice of his fiancé lawyer who was with him then.
PDEA claimed that because of Faeldon’s actions, the evidence had been contaminated, and they could no longer go after the people behind the smuggling operations of drugs in the country.
“Many other appointees have been fired for lesser offenses. We trust that Malacanang will heed the calls and act accordingly,” Pangilinan said.
Senate blue ribbon committee chairman Richard Gordon also said Faeldon should consider resigning from his post to “face the music.”
In his twitter post Friday, Senator Panfilo Lacson also said questioned why President Duterte had not yet gotten mad over the issue.
Aren’t you mad at the BOC (Bureau of Customs), Mr. President?” he said in his tweet.
President Duterte, earlier said that he would wait for the results of the investigations in the hearings in Congress on the matter before he would make a decision on Faeldon’s fate.
“I want the report, final. Then I will review it and I will be fair,” Duterte earlier said..
But he said that if there is evidence of corruption or collusion with smugglers, Faeldon would have to go.
“I said, if there is corruption, wala na tayong magawa (we can’t do anything). But if just a matter of computation, like in some cases, I would not – I know the guy,” Duterte told reporters earlier.
