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P6.4-B SHABU MESS

Lacson asks Duterte: Aren’t you mad at the BOC?


Senator Panfilo Lacson is perplexed about President Duterte's passivity about the Customs Bureau's failure to intercept a P6.4-bilion shabu shipment from China in May.

“Aren't you mad at the BOC, Mr. President?” Lacson posted on his social media account.

“That's 605kgs of high grade meth that slipped out of the Customs zone under their noses,” he said.

 

 

Lacson made the statement amid the separate investigations being conducted by the Senate and House of Representatives on the said shipment.

Lacson earlier criticized the BOC for allowing the shipment from China to pass through the green lane where containers no longer require inspection.

On Wednesday, Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano deemed as “suspicious” Duterte’s supposed silence on the issue.

“Over two months since the P6.4 billion worth of shabu shipped from China was discovered by authorities and the President has [remained] indifferent [to] the issue,” Alejano said in a statement.

“The same President who is infamous for his deadly war on drugs. The same President who has threatened and lambasted drug addicts, drug peddlers and nacro-politicians in every opportunity for him to speak. The same President who said that he would kill even his own child if found out to be involved in illegal drugs,” he said.

Faeldon

Last week, Malacañang said Duterte expressed his “full confidence” in Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon despite the controversy.

Senators who earlier met with the President in Malacañang said Duterte will decide on Faeldon’s fate after both the Senate and House come up with their separate reports on their investigations.

On Wednesday, Duterte addressed the issue but only in connection with his son’s alleged involvement in the corruption inside the bureau.

Duterte said he will step down if any of his children are found to be involved in corruption.

Duterte said this after Customs middleman Mark Taguba, who earlier testified that he bribed several officials to let the P6.4-billion shabu shipment slip through Customs, mentioned the name of Duterte’s son, Davao Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, in a House committee hearing.

Vice Mayor Duterte said Taguba’s claim was a “lie.” — RSJ/KVD, GMA News

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