Blue ribbon panel to seek charges vs. Faeldon over P6.4-B drug shipment

The Senate blue ribbon committee in a draft report  has recommended the filing of charges against former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon over the smuggling of the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China.

The partial committee report prepared by Senator Richard Gordon said Faeldon was "culpable for misfeasance and non-feasance in the performance of his functions.”

The report said Faeldon, who is presently detained at the Senate for refusing to testify on the controversy, violated Republic Act (RA) No. 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and RA No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

It said the Department of Finance, Office of the Ombudsman, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency should investigate Faeldon “to determine the degree os his participation, if any.”

“To be fair, a public announcement must, too, be made if these agencies mentioned do not find any culpability in him,” it added.

The draft report faulted Faeldon for putting up the Bureau of Customs Command Center (ComCen), which supposedly “resulted in situations that ironically eased the entry of drugs and of illicit goods rather than prevent it.”

In a previous committee hearing, Deputy Commissioner Gerardo Gambala said the ComCen has already been “deactivated.”

Gambala has since resigned from his post.

According to the draft report, the ComCen was envisioned to "monitor, coordinate, and supervise different aspects of Customs administration.”

But the ComCen instead allowed “unscrupulous persons to take advantage of the centralization of the alert system to bypass the checks of district collectors and field offices and thus abuse the green lane facility.”

It was disclosed during the Senate blue ribbon probe that the P6.4-billion shabu that slipped past the Customs last May passed through the green lane. The said green lane facility or “fast lane” has already been suspended. 

The committee said creating the ComCen was outside Faeldon’s powers as commissioner of BOC.

It added that Faeldon had a “penchant for putting in a cabal of like-minded people,” like graduates of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and members of the Magdalo group.

“He created an echo chamber, where they listened only to themselves. Sadly, for the country, we found that such an arrangement only led to gross incompetence, resulted in ‘corrupt-tible’ officers, managers. One hard lesson learned: do not put one barkada into one place, performing the same assignment,” it said.

The committee also found Gambala, former Intelligence and Investigation Service Director Neil Anthony Estrella, and former Customs Import Assessment Service Director Milo Maestrecampo in violation of both RA 10863 and RA 3019. Intelligence officer Joel Pinawin meanwhile is recommended to be charged with violation of RA 10863.

The report said there must be a “closer look must also be made into the participation” of BOC risk management officer Larribert Hilario who had access to the tagging of shipments.

The partial report is still yet to be sponsored before the plenary and approved by the Senate. —NB, GMA News