The Senate Blue Ribbon committee will continue to detain former Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, who has been jailed at the Senate detention facility since September last year over contempt charges.
In an interview after the resumption of the hearing on the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China that slipped through the Bureau of Customs, commitee chairman Senator Richard Gordon said he still ask to consult fellow senators on Faeldon’s continued detention.
He noted that since the Senate is a collegial body, he needs to consult his colleagues if they Faeldon will remain detained in the Senate or he will be transferred to Pasay jail.
Although Faeldon attended yesterday’s hearing, Gordon, however, slammed Faeldon’s character and attitude.
He told reporters that Faeldon should see a psychiatrist fo be psychologically examined due to his “sordid character.”
He said this is why Faeldon should not be allowed to hold any government position especially a sensitive one like his current post.
Faeldon, who quit as BOC commissioner due to his allaged involvement in a huge shipment of shabu, recently took his oath of office before Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana as deputy administration of the Office of Civil Defense.
Gordon’s committee opted to detain Faeldon due to his repeated refusal to attend the Blue Ribbon committee hearing.
“How can we release him? Look at the way he acted during the hearing. Something is really wrong with this guy,” said Gordon.
Gordon and Faeldon engaged in a heated argument after the senator said he allowed him to hold parties even under Senate detention to prove he was fair.
Gordon also said Faeldon’s father joined him in the supposed parties.
A combatant Faeldon blew his top and insisted it was not a party but a family dinner. He also denied having a party with his father in the Senate nor with anybody. He explained that his father has long been dead.
“We had a dinner. It’s not a party! You know, it’s Christmas! You’re exaggerating, your honor,” Faeldon told Gordon, to which the senator blurted, “Don’t tell me I’m exaggerating.”
“I attended this hearing because I am now a government employee; not because I expect you will lead this committee to find out the truth. You’re so far from getting that, your honor,” Faeldon shot back.
At this juncture, Gordon said Faeldon, will remain under contempt.
“I have no problem with that. I did not attend here so that I will have my liberty. I attended here so that—I’m the most interested person to ferret out the truth, which you’re so far from seeking,” answered Faeldon who appeared more combatant.
Gordon also accused Faeldon of refusing to speak the truth and to testify in the inquiry.
But the former BOC official said he had offered to answer all the senator’s questions in affidavit form.
“You’ve been telling the public that I don’t want to participate…Do not pretend that I do not want to participate. You are already monologuing and lecturing. This is the reason why I don’t want to attend here. You are not interested about the truth,” Faeldon said.
However, Gordon merely taunted Faeldon and told him: “Do not cry.”
Faeldon said this is why he does not want to attend the Blue Ribbon committee hearing.
In the same hearing, he accused Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Vicente “Tito” Sotto III of making improper requests when he was still at the helm of the bureau after Sen. Bam Aquino asked him to name public officials who had made “illegal” requests.
Faeldon said Drilon requested him to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the BOC and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) to renovate the BOC building in Iloilo using NHCP funds. He said after the renovation, it will be converted into a museum and occupy the third floor of the building. He insisted on signing the MOA.
Regarding Sotto, he said the senator recommended the appointment of a BOC employee Eric Albano as a director for intelligence. But when interviewed,
Albano asked him about the number kf their apprehensions, he answered none
despite his 42 years with the Customs intelligence.
Drilon insisted there was nothing illegal to his request. He said the MOA is to allow the NHCP to do the repair of the building.
In fact, he said the building is not even owned by the Bureau of Customs. The title is in the name of the Republic of the Philippines. They are just there by tolerance of the government.
He explained that it was a budget of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and “they are requesting for my help, because the budget is going to revert” and that P9 million was reverted.
He also said this is a project which seeks to restore historical sites in Iloilo City.
He added that there are less than a dozen of Custom employees were there and they will not be kicked out; and in fact the office is being improved and they will occupy the third floor. It’s a historical building. It houses a lot of offices.
Reacting to Faeldon’s claim, Sotto told him, “Stick to the issue. Explain your involvement in the P6.4-billion worth of shabu that was released during your watch. Dragging my name will not free him from any accountability.”
Meanwhile, Faeldo asked the Supreme Court to order his immediate release from Senate’s detention due to his defiance to testify in its ongoing investigation on the smuggling of P6.4 billion shabu.
In his 30-page petition, Faeldon through his lawyer Jose Diño also sought the nullification of the arrest and detention order issued by the Senate last September 7, 2017.
Faeldon argued that his arrest and detention order should be declared null and void because it was issued pursuant to a proceeding without any legislative purpose but purely for “persecution, grandstanding and self-confessed obsession.”
The former Customs official noted that he has been deprived of liberty for 134 days already “despite that what we committed was merely legislative contempt, which is neither a heinous nor a non-bailable offense.”
Faeldon named Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations (Blue Ribbon) and M/Gen. Jose Balajadia as respondents.
The former military officer lamented that instead of getting praises for the seizure of the illegal drugs last May 26, 2017, he was accused of being involved in the smuggling of shabu and other malicious imputations prompting him to decide against participating in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the matter.
This prompted the committee to order his arrest and detention on September 8, 2017.
Faeldon told the SC that from July 2017 until even date, the author or any other member-senator of the respondent Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for that matter, has not filed any proposed amendatory law, or any proposed new law with reference to the subject matter thereof.
He added that his arrest also has no factual basis and was issued in violation of his right to due process of law, as there was no show cause order issued prior to the order for his arrest and detention.
“All that respondent Sen. Gordon and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (SBRC) succeeded at, from the eleven (11) fruitless and wasteful hearings they conducted, was to focus the tri-media’s attention and media mileage on themselves, as well as to carry-out their vindictive persecution of the Petitioner,” the petition stated.
The petitioner also lamented that one of the Blue Ribbon panel members — Senator Panfilo Lacson — even accused Faeldon of receiving P100 million as a ‘welcome-gift’ to allow the entry into the country of the P6.4-billion worth of shabu.
However, the Senator failed to produce any evidence to prove his allegation, Faeldon said.
The former Customs official said the allegations against him is proof that the senators “merely used, misused and abused their legislative privilege of inquiry for no other purpose than to malign, abuse, character-assassinate and besmirch the Petitioner’s good name and reputation.
“As we have shown that the assailed arrest and detention order, was not a mere error of judgment or misappreciation of the facts and evidence, but was a willful, deliberate, capricious and whimsical exercise of judgment equivalent to lack of jurisdiction, not to mention being without any legal or factual, basis, and in utter violation of the petitioner’s right to due process of law, then the same, must of necessity, be annulled and set aside,” the petitioner stressed.
