Beleaguered Customs chief to lawmakers: ‘Let President fire me’

(L-R) customs officials col. Neil Estrella, commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, deputy commissioner Gerardo Gambala take their oath at the house of representative committee on dangerous drugs hearing on the 6.4billion shabu shipment from china confiscated by the bureau of customs.-INQUIRER / Grig C. Montegrande

Despite the criticisms hurled against him, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon on Tuesday insisted that he will not resign from his position.

In the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs’ investigation on the smuggling of the P6.4-billion methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) into the country, Faeldon said he will not step down amid lawmakers’ call for him to quit.

“Your Honor, I am a soldier, I do not treat this position as a job, it is a mission. And a soldier does not quit from his mission, but a soldier can be fired. So let the President fire me,” said Faeldon when he was asked by SAGIP Party-list Rodante Marcoleta if he was willing to submit a resignation letter to President Rodrigo Duterte.

Earlier in the hearing, Surigao del Norte Second District Representative Robert Ace Barbers said Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials “should all resign” after the “questionable” and “bungled” raid of the Valenzuela City warehouse which contained the 605 kilos of high-grade shabu from China. IDL

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