There is an interesting site in the Internet which deals with “new” words in the English language. One such word is “faildom,” which is defined as “when one fails too much it becomes one’s life.”
That word best describes Nicanor Faeldon, the beleaguered commissioner of the Bureau of Customs currently under fire for many controversies in the bureau, including a report that he allowed a shipment of shabu worth P6.4 billion from Communist China to the Philippines last week. The other allegations against him include his illegal raid on a warehouse of narcotics.
If those allegations against Commissioner Faeldon are true, and the current congressional investigations seem to confirm this, then the anti-narcotics campaign launched by President Rodrigo Duterte is in serious jeopardy.
At the very least, these revelations are clear indications that Faeldon has to go. Allowing him to stay in office any further will damage the credibility Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.
What is truly telling is that the shipment containing 605 kilograms of shabu worth P6.4 billion slipped passed the Bureau of Customs supposedly undetected. It was allowed access through the so-called “green lane,” a process reserved only for reputable and trustworthy importers, in gross violation of protocols.
When the anomaly was exposed in the news media, Faeldon offered the lame excuse that the x-ray machines in the Bureau’s inspection area are not sophisticated enough to detect narcotics.
If that is so, and Faeldon was aware of it, why didn’t he cause their replacement with state-of-the-art detectors?
Faeldon’s lame excuse is belied by the revelation that a day before the shipment, a risk management officer of the bureau, acting on a tip from China, requested Faeldon to issue an alert order on the shipment. Faeldon ignored the recommendation.
There is more. When another tip from China provided an opportunity to recover the illegal drugs at a certain warehouse in Valenzuela City, Faeldon raided the warehouse without obtaining the requisite search warrant.
After locating the narcotics at the warehouse, Faeldon had the crates containing the drugs opened even before representatives from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency could arrive to process the haul. Faeldon’s act was in violation of the rules governing seizures of illegal drugs.
To justify what happened, Faeldon claimed that the PDEA representatives took so long to arrive at the warehouse.
Assuming that to be true, Faeldon should have ordered Bureau policemen and guards to secure the warehouse until the PDEA representatives arrived. He didn’t.
After the raid, Faeldon turned over just 100 kilograms of the smuggled shabu, again in violation of the law.
The Constitution provides that any evidence obtained in a raid conducted without a search warrant is inadmissible in evidence for any purpose in any proceeding. Since the raid was conducted without the requisite search warrant, senators and congressmen investigating the anomaly fear that the evidence seized at the warehouse may be inadmissible in court, and will allow the smugglers and drug dealers concerned to escape criminal prosecution. Observers suspect that this is the reason why Faeldon conducted the raid without obtaining the requisite search warrant.
At the Senate investigation of this anomaly, Senator Richard Gordon was right in scolding Faeldon and his men. Gordon bluntly called them either incompetent or corrupt.
Despite his protestations of innocence in the news media, Faeldon’s actions and omissions betray him. To date, Faeldon and his people have not filed criminal charges against the owner of the smuggled shabu, a certain Richard Chen or Richard Tan. This has prompted Representative Harry Roque to suspect that Faeldon is protecting the drug smuggler.
Another anomaly discovered is the creation by Faeldon of a command center vested with the exclusive authority to issue alert orders. House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the creation of that center is illegal because the Department of Finance has not issued any administrative order authorizing its creation.
There is also the disturbing revelation from Senator Panfilo Lacson that every container smuggled into the country yields a payoff of at least P27,000 for corrupt customs personnel. That means an annual figure of a whopping P147 billion, a sum large enough to wipe out the current budget deficit in the government.
The anomalies do not end there. It was also revealed by Representative Raneo Abu that Faeldon hired 28 athletes and assigned them to his office as “intelligence agents.” Questioned about this, Faeldon simply said that athletes are in the best position to improve the public image of the Bureau.
What hogwash! The public image of the Bureau is best improved by openly firing corrupt customs officials and personnel and filing criminal raps against them. Once the public is convinced that there are no sacred cows in the Bureau, its image will improve drastically. Hiring athletes as “intelligence agents” will not improve the public image of the Bureau.
Representative Robert Ace Barbers, who heads the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs, asserted that the athletes hired by Faeldon are not even qualified to work for the Bureau. Barbers is right. How athletes can actually conduct intelligence work relating to big-time smuggling at the piers and ports is a big mystery.
Analysts believe that this anomaly in the Bureau strongly suggests that Faeldon and his long-time fellow coup plotter, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, are beefing up their war chest through the Bureau in preparation for another attempt to overthrow the government—this time the government under President Duterte.
Data provided by the Department of Finance indicate that the collection effort of the Bureau of Customs from the time Faeldon assumed office until May 2017 is the same as in 2015, and even less than in 2014. That’s failure plain and simple.
A few days ago, Faeldon announced that he had asked President Duterte to fire him. Faeldon should spare the president the inconvenience. He should do everyone a favor by resigning his post immediately.