SENATOR Richard Gordon warned former Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon Friday that he will be detained if he continues to refuse to testify before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, which is investigating the smuggling in of P6.4 billion worth of shabu in May.
The hearings of the committee, chaired by Gordon, will resume Monday.
“If he refuses to answer [our questions], we will go to the next step, which is to put him under formal arrest,” Gordon said, saying Faeldon could be detained in the Senate, or in a jail cell in Pasay City or in Muntinlupa.
Faeldon said he will go to the Senate on Monday to have himself arrested, but he would not go to attend the hearing.
In a letter sent to the committee, Faeldon said he will no longer attend congressional inquiries as he no longer has faith in the system because of the partiality of some senators who have maligned him.
“I will no longer attend inquiries of both houses of Congress until a competent court has clearly defined the limitations of the privilege of legislative immunity vis-a-viis the constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens of this country. All rights guaranteed under the Constitution and all other laws must be respected,” Faeldon said.
Instead, Faeldon called on senators and congressmen to immediately file their cases against him and the rest of his team in court so that justice would be served.
He added that Senate security can even carry him after his arrest and force him to attend the Senate hearing on Monday but he will not participate.
Gordon said Faeldon’s refusal to answer questions during the hearing amount to defiance that could lead to his incarceration.
He guaranteed Faeldon would be afforded the opportunity to answer the allegations against him, including those of Senator Panfilo Lacson, who said he received millions of pesos in bribes.
“I assure him, and I’m sure Senate President [Aquilino] Pimentel [III] would also assure him that he will be allowed to speak, defend himself and explain himself,” Gordon said.
He said so far, Faeldon is only accountable for his negligence.
“In fairness to Faeldon, his only fault, he was way over his head and surrounded by pythons. So I haven”t been saying anything against Faeldon, except that he’s guilty of negligence,” he said.
Faeldon was cited for contempt on Thursday after he failed to attend the Senate hearings for the second time.
On Friday morning, the Senate sergeant-at-arms went to his residence in Rizal to deliver the contempt order. This was to ensure that he understood the consequences if he fails to appear on Monday, Gordon said.
Gordon also said Faeldon’s letter was not read in full Thursday because it was “very derogatory” to Lacson and “very defiant” of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who has also come down hard on the former Customs chief, his former comrade in arms in their mutiny against then President Gloria Arroyo.
In a privilege speech on Aug. 23, Lacson accused Faeldon and other Bureau of Customs officials of accepting bribes. He also said Faeldon received P100-million “welcome money” when assumed his post as Customs chief.
Faeldon and others named in the list denied the allegations.
Faeldon later hit back, accusing Lacson’s son of cement smuggling.
Allies of President Rodrigo Duterte came to the defense of his eldest son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Durterte, who refused Trillanes’ challenge to show the tattoo on his back to disprove rumors that he belonged to an international drug triad.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said Trillanes’ line of questioning was off tangent from the topic of the Blue Ribbon hearing.
“That was just a waste of time,” said Pimentel, who is also president of the ruling PDP-Laban whose chairman is the President.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said Paolo did the right thing by refusing to have his tattoo photographed for submission to the US Drug Enforcement Agency for decoding.
“We cannot react unsubstantiated allegations,” said Sotto.”You gave credence [to these allegations] when you react.”
Trillanes said the tattoo could reveal which faction of the supposed triad Paolo belongs to based on the digits printed.
Paolo earlier admitted that he indeed had a tattoo on his back, but refused to answer any more questions about it.
Trillanes said Paolo’s refusal and his demeanor could lead the public to “simply conclude that the allegations are true.”
Trillanes also dared both Paolo and his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, to sign a document waiving their bank secrecy rights. Both refused to do so.
The senator said Paolo has P104 million in his bank accounts while Carpio, husband of Davao City Mayor Sarah Duterte, has over P120 million.
He said Paolo’s alleged ill-gotten wealth may have been sourced from smuggling operations and illegal drugs.
He said his foreign source of information said Paolo was part of a triad, and the physical evidence of this was the tattoo on his back.
He said the triad operates in countries such as China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and is engaged in various illegal activities, including illegal drugs.
The senator said he is certain that President Duterte knows that his son is a member of the drug triad.
“I am sure he knows it,” he said.
Customs broker and fixer Mark Taguba named Paolo and Carpio as leaders of the so-called Davao group which facilitated shipments at the BOC in exchange for huge bribes. However, he later said his knowledge of their involvement was based on hearsay.
Detained Senator Leila de Lima said Paolo was apparently caught off-guard by Trillanes’ question on the triad because he seemed surprised enough to give a candid answer in the beginning, but suddenly backtracked and claimed his right to privacy.
“I was not surprised either to see that, after the hearing, Polong (Paolo) Duterte’s lawyer did his dirty job for him by offering to trade Polong’s cooperation with an admission by Senator Trillanes that he is gay,” saíd De Lima.
“It’s amazing how shady people and their lawyers deflect pertinent and important questions by flippantly maligning the members of the LGBT community, by implying that there is anything shameful about being gay,” she added.
Paolo’s lawyer Rainier Madrid had repeatedly insinuated that Trillanes was gay for insisting on seeing his client’s body.
“Is he gay? Probably,” he said.