As the call for the resignation of Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon continues to snowball in Congress, China’s top anti-smuggling enforcement agency hailed the embattled Bureau of Customs official’s leadership for the seizure of 605 kilos of shabu valued at R6.4 billion last May in Valenzuela City which is the source of congressional criticisms against him.
Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta partylist Rep. Jericho Nograles vouched for the integrity and honesty of Faeldon but noted that the Customs chief “lacks the legal and administrative know-how” to run the Bureau’s highly complex operations.
Faeldon is expected to present to lawmakers today the commendation that the BoC received from the General Administration of Customs of China for the successful interception of the R6.4-billion shabu from China.
A letter of commendation was sent to Faeldon by Zhang Xiaohui, head of the International Enforcement Cooperation Division-Anti-Smuggling Bureau of GACC.
“We hereby certificated (sic) that no Filipino citizen was detected by ASB to be involved in the drug smuggling and that based on our intelligence, there was only one shipment of drug destined for the Philippines and no other shipment was related to this case,” Zhang said.
Meanwhile, Faeldon said President Duterte turned down his request to be fired following the illegal drug shipment from China.
In an interview over radio DZMM, Faeldon said he put his request in writing and Duterte immediately turned it down through Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go last Friday night.
“I already requested the President to fire me. I don’t want to give the President a hard decision to make so I volunteered to him,” Faeldon said. (Ben R. Rosario, Betheena Kae Unite, and Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)
