Customs chief Faeldon to Congress: Stop unreasonable requests

Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon on Wednesday appealed to some members of Congress to stop backing the promotion of some employees of the Bureau, which he said were among the unreasonable requests forwarded to his office.

"I am appealing to you. You know that your request is a form of [corruption] but you insist and magagalit pa kayo... Shame on you. Stop it," Faeldon said during a briefing in Manila.

While he refused to identify the members of Congress he was referring to, one of Faeldon's aides was earlier in the headlines after she called Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez an "imbecile" for supposedly pushing for the promotion of an employee who was "unqualified."

"This is not your property. This is the country's Bureau of Customs, this is the Filipino people's Bureau of Customs ... so don't act like you own this," Faeldon said.

Aside from promotions, Faeldon said Congress members also requested for some employees to be reassigned to a specific office of the BOC.

"Pati assignment, ituturo sayo: 'Oh, dito mo ilagay.' Why would I allow that?" he said.

"I'm the one being blamed for the lousiness here, but they are the ones trying to put people who are lousy," he added. — RSJ, GMA News