FORMER Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon may be sent to the Pasay City jail if he does not appear before the panel’s hearing into the alleged corruption at the Bureau of Customs, Blue Ribbon committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon said in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB that the likelihood of a jail detention for Faeldon loomed strong.
If I were him, Gordon said, Faeldon should just testify and he’ll be set free. Another Senate public hearing on the issue has been set for Monday.
Faeldon has been named deputy administrator for operations of the Office of Civil Defense, but remains “indefinitely” detained at the Senate since September last year for refusing to appear before the Senate’s investigation into the P6.4-billion shabu shipment.
Faeldon cannot just simply appear before the panel and invoke his right against self-incrimination once he is questioned, as he has to “properly” and “validly” address every question, Gordon said.
“The senators have been saying all along that we have to protect the Senate. Can you imagine, one is summoned and does not attend the hearing, then we will all be in the dark in such controversial cases as Dengvaxia and shabu,” Gordon said.
“I don’t threaten, I just do it. Kasi pag nag-threaten ka nabawasan ka na ng sinasabi mo…sorry ah, ayaw mong sumunod, ayaw mong respetuhin ang Senado, then we have to do something about it,” Gordon said.
Faeldon’s lawyer Jose Diño earlier said that his client has already been issued another subpoena to attend the Senate hearing on Monday, 1 p.m.
Diño, however, doubts that Faeldon will attend the Blue Ribbon hearing.
“I doubt it. He will maintain, I think, his right to personal dignity, specifically his right not to be browbeaten [again] with hopelessly unprovable and garbage allegations,” he said in a statement.
On Gordon’s statement that Faeldon may be transferred to Pasay City jail if the latter doesn’t attend Monday’s hearing, Diño said: “Real men do, they do not threaten, Gordon can do anything he wants because he is a very, very powerful man and he wants to flaunt his power.”
