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Friday, March 29, 2024

I still believe in, trust Faeldon, Rody proclaims

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President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he still believes in Nicanor Faeldon, despite firing him as Bureau of Corrections chief three days ago.

“Tarong ina na tawo. (He’s a good person.) I still believe in him,” Duterte said in his speech during the groundbreaking ceremony of housing projects for victims of a landslide in Naga City, Cebu.

The President, who sacked Faeldon over the early release of heinous crime convicts for supposed good conduct, praised the former Marine captain for exposing cigarette firm Mighty Corp. for faking tax stamps.

He also said that if Faeldon had been corrupt, he would be mum on the operations of Mighty Corp.

In other developments:

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• The President revealed Friday that he had ordered the transfer of high-profile inmates who testified against detained Senator Leila de Lima from the New Bilibid Prison to the Marine barracks in Taguig City.

Duterte said he had ordered this because De Lima, who has been detained for two years over her alleged involvement in illegal drugs, may have allies inside the national penitentiary who could threaten the 10 inmates.

The high-profile inmates moved by BuCor to Marine custody last June 12 included Peter Co, who the President had tagged as one of the top suppliers of the illegal drug shabu in the country.

• Senator Francis Pangilinan questioned the transfer of 10 high-profile inmates from the New Bilibid Prison to Marine barracks in Taguig.

He said the explanation of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra”•that the transfer was for security reasons”•was a virtual admission of the prison system’s inability to protect inmates, even in the maximum security compound in the New Bilibid Prison.

“More than a case of special treatment,” he said, “one can’t help wonder if this is part of the reward the convicts are receiving for weaving stories and testifying against Senator Leila de Lima.”

Seven of the 10 inmates had testified against De Lima.

• Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said there was nothing irregular about the transfer of convicts who were witnesses in the drug cases against detained Senator Leila de Lima from the New Bilibid Prison to the Marine barracks in Muntinlupa, Taguig.

“There is nothing irregular to that for as long as court approval is secured,” Guevarra said in an interview.

Guevarra made the statement in reaction to a complaint from De Lima’s lawyer Filibon Tacardon that they were not informed about the transfer.

Duterte also credited Faeldon for resisting the temptation of entering into a deal with cigarette maker Mighty where he could have earned money.

This was not the first time that Duterte praised the dismissed BuCor chief for tipping the government off about Mighty’s cheating on taxes.

Faeldon was initially appoined by the President to the Bureau of Customs, but the ex-Marine stepped down after P6.8 billion worth of shabu slipped through the ports of Manila.

Duterte later reappointed Faeldon to the Department of National Defense-Office of Civil Defense as deputy administrator, and then later as BuCor chief.

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