Faeldon meeting with smugglers bared

Resigned Bureau of Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

Former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon met with the so-called big players or smugglers at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) days after he took office in July 2016 and Sen. Panfilo Lacson is questioning the propriety of such meeting.

Faeldon’s meeting with the big players at the BOC was disclosed on Wednesday by Ruben Taguba, father of customs fixer Mark Taguba who in turn was under investigation for allegedly facilitating the entry of the P6.4-billion “shabu” shipment from China, during the Senate hearing into the alleged “tara” (payola) system at the BOC.

The elder Taguba has wide connections within the bureau being a former customs police at the bureau.

Lacson later told reporters that Faeldon’s meeting with the big players or smugglers at the BOC was a big no-no.

“In the first place, why would you talk with the players when you were just appointed commissioner?  It’s like I’m the chief of the Philippine National Police and I meet with ‘jueteng’ operators. Aren’t you supposed to arrest them? You only talk to them to negotiate. That’s the only purpose, for you to negotiate, which is unbecoming,” Lacson said.

At the 11th hearing by the Senate blue ribbon committee,  the elder Taguba said Faeldon had asked his advice on cleaning up and making big changes at the BOC.

The elder Taguba said he gave a list of “notorious” players at the BOC to Faeldon but nothing came out of it because the tara system still continued there two months later.

He agreed with Lacson that apparently Faeldon just wanted to find out who the big players were.

“If the commissioner will not allow it, there will be no tara…that’s proven ever since…

if the commissioner will not allow it, no tara will happen in the bottom,” Taguba said during the hearing.

Taguba also said he also attended a meeting of Faeldon with brokers or the big players.