House panel to recommend raps vs. Faeldon, BOC officials

The House Committee on Dangerous Drugs is recommending the filing of criminal and even administrative charges against former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and other officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for supposedly being on the take in the so-called "tara system" at the agency.

In a news release on Friday, panel chair Robert Ace Barbers said the committee was able to establish that there was a "tara system" at the BOC.

“I’m sure the members enjoin me in the conclusion that there is really a systemic, endemic or whatever epidemic that is going on in the bureau. And this is the reason why the smuggling of goods, including shabu, was possible,” Barbers said.

The House panel met on Thursday to review the draft committee report of the inquiry into the P6.4-billion shabu shipment illegally transported to the country and to determine the cases to be filed against the BOC officials involved.

Barbers said it would be necessary to come up with an executive summary of the 52-page committee report, including recommendations.

The committee report, however, has yet to be finalized.

Barbers said the committee recommended the filing of a criminal complaint against Faeldon for violating Section 3 of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, in a privilege speech on Wednesday, accused Faeldon of receiving P5,000 to P10,000 in bribes per container and a "pasalubong" amounting to P100 million as a welcome gift shortly after he assumed the post in 2016.

Meanwhile, Barbers said the committee also recommended that the Department of Justice file a falsification case against Faeldon's chief of staff, Atty. Mandy Anderson for signing the daily time records of the athletes hired by the BOC to make it appear that they reported for work.

The athletes, among them basketball stars Kenneth Duremdes and EJ Feihl and volleyball star Alyssa Valdez, were hired as technical assistants and intelligence agents of the BOC in order for them to play for the agency.

The committee also recommended that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency file a complaint against Atty. Dennis Siyhian and Atty. Catherine Nolasco, investigators of the National Bureau of Investigation's Anti-Organized Transnational Crime Division.

This was after Siyhian and Nolasco failed to turn over 500 kilos of confiscated shabu to the custody of the PDEA, a violation of the Dangerous Drugs Board Regulation No. 1, Series of 2002, Custody and Disposition of Seized Dangerous Drugs, in relation to Section 32 of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu, on the other, moved to delete the name of BOC Deputy Commissioner Gerardo Gambala in the list of the respondents, as the documents showing his liability in the cases are absent.

Barbers advised the committee members to go over the draft committee report before adopting, approving, amending or including more recommendations for submission to the Committee on Rules and, eventually, for scheduling in the plenary. —KG/KVD, GMA News