PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he continues to trust Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, but said he would wait for the results of congressional investigations into the failure of Customs examiners to stop the entry of P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China.
“I believe in his integrity,” Duterte said of Faeldon on the sidelines of ceremonies to mark the 113rd anniversary of the Bureau of Internal Revenue. “[But] let the investigation go to its end. Let them wind up…. I want the report… then I will review it and I will be fair.”
On Wednesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez disowned a two-sentence statement released by Malacanang being attributed to him, claiming that Faeldon still enjoys the “full confidence and trust” of the President—adding that no one is off the hook yet.
“It is not my statement,” Dominguez said in a chance interview with reporters.
He said of Faeldon: “Nobody is safe. Even me.”
The Palace later said the statement was erroneously attributed to Dominguez.
“Secretary Dominguez merely confirmed that a meeting with various officials transpired. On the other part of the statement released yesterday, as we learned, various officials also attended the meeting wherein the President expressed confidence in Commissioner Faeldon, and told him to serve the country,” Communications Assistant Secretary for Content and Messaging Rachel Queenie Rodulfo said in a text message.
On Tuesday night, Duterte met with Faeldon after some 600 kilos of shabu from China slipped past Customs examiners in May.
At that meeting were Dominguez, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, and BIR Commissioner Cesar Dulay.
He met with lawmakers an hour later.
Both chambers of Congress are conducting a probe into the entry of the illegal drugs, and a number of lawmakers, including Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, have called for Faeldon to resign over “gross incompetence.”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, who was at the meeting with Duterte, said he believed Faeldon’s fate depends on the findings of ongoing investigations into the drugs smuggled in from China last May.
“That is my impression–that the continued stay of Faeldon will be influenced and will be determined on the basis of the findings of both houses,” Drilon said.
He said the President is eagerly awaiting the recommendation of both the Senate and the House panels.
“Speaker [Pantaleon] Alvarez and Rep. [Rodolfo] Farinas were also present. Our agreement in the Senate is we will try to finish as soon as possible and we will submit our recommendation to the President,” Drilon said.
In the meeting Tuesday night, the President told lawmakers that he would wait for the results of the congressional probe.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who was also present in the Malacañang meeting with the President, said he does not know if Faeldon will be retained or dismissed.
“Nobody can tell the President to fire him. Of course there could be some suggestions but that would only be suggestions because that’s the prerogative of the President,” he said.
Lacson also said he does not know if the President will listen to the recommendation of the Senate and House once they are done with their separate investigations.
Detained Senator Leila De Lima said the ongoing investigation on the large-scale smuggling of methamphetamine (shabu) from China “betrays a glaring inadequacy of the anti-illegal drug program of the government.”
“While our law enforcers focus their attention on going after street peddlers and drug addicts, less efforts have been placed on other, perhaps more important, aspects of the war on drugs: supply and demand reduction,” she said.
She added that without the tip-off from Customs officials in China, the drugs would have been distributed all over the country by now.
“This can only lead to two conclusions: first, that China is not doing enough to prevent the exportation of shabu from their country; and second, our Bureau of Customs is almost utterly incapable of preventing the entry of illegal drugs,” she said.
During his testimony before the Blue Ribbon Committee, Faeldon admitted that they do not have the capacity to screen all incoming shipments.
Senator Richard Gordon said the new system being implemented at Customs could have allowed more illegal imports to be released.
That system, put in place by Faeldon, limits the issuing of alert orders to his office, through the Command Center under Gerardo Gambala.
Gordon said he did not buy the explanation that the shipment for EMT Trading was put in the Green Lane because the head of the BOC-Risk Management Office, Labert Hilario, had failed to update the entries for the shipment.
Gordon also said bigger shipments of shabu might have already go through Customs.
Opposition lawmakers on Wednesday joined calls for Faeldon’s resignation.
House minority leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez also dared Faeldon to name lawmakers who were trying to influence assignments and promotions at the bureau.
“It is a shame that the agency responsible for the entry of goods in the country failed to stop illegal drugs from coming in, in the midst of the President’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs,” Suarez said.
He said Faeldon must go for embarrassing the President.
Deputy Minority Leader and Buhay Party-List Rep. Lito Atienza also called for Faeldon’s resignation.
“We blame the Bureau of Customs for the entry of the P6.25 billion worth of shabu into our country, legally at that. Thousands have been killed in the government’s ongoing war on drugs but it is ironic that the entry of shabu continues unabated.”
Dominguez, meanwhile, urged the BIR and Customs to go after more “big fish” like Mighty Corp., which offered the government P25 billion to settle its tax deficiencies.
“You better line up another big one. Next year, if possible, catch somebody, another big fish,” Dominguez told Dulay and Faeldon at a recent meeting of the Finance Department’s executive committee.
“People should pay attention to paying their taxes, because we are serious about doing it… We are not out for publicity…. We are out for big amounts. I mean, our time is limited so let’s go for the big ones,” Dominguez said.
He said P20 billion to P30 billion more from tax cheats would be a “good target.”
Dominguez said the Finance Department would also launch its own investigation into the P6.4-billion shabu shipment, but would wait until Congress had completed its own probes.
“It is better to do it in sequence so we have something to start with,” Dominguez said.
“We will wait for the results of the investigation of the legislature. We must respect them,” he added.
At a congressional hearing Wednesday, suspended Customs risk management officer Hilario told lawmakers he tried to request an alert order on the shabu shipment but Import Assessment Division Director Milo Maestrecampo failed to act on the request.
“The importations should have been put on hold and there should have been a physical examination. All the contents of the container, they would be opened and examined if they were declared correctly,” Hilario said.
“Had my request been approved, inside the BoC, we would have already known that it contained the [metal] cylinders [that contained the drugs],” Hilario added.
Maestrecampo, for his part, said he was not in the position to issue the alert order because only the Command Center could do that.
“What I have is recommendatory power to [issue an] alert,” he said.
But House Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas disputed Maestrecampo’s claim, saying that a Customs memo showed only Maestrecampo could take action.
Also on Wednesday, the Justice Department issued an immigration lookout bulletin order against businessman Richard Tan and six other persons tagged in thel smuggling of the shabu shipment.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II directed the Bureau of Immigration to monitor the possible flight of Tan alias Richard Chen, Chen Yu Long and Ken Joo Lung and subjects of the ongoing investigation.
Tan in the owner of the warehouse in Valenzuela City where the shipment was seized. With Julito G. Rada