Bureau of Customs (BoC) Commissioner Isidro Lapeña’s own admission that the four magnetic lifters discovered in Cavite might have contained illegal drugs may be enough reason for him to resign.
But even if Lapeña steps down from his post, opposition Senator Bam Aquino believes that the problems at the BoC will continue unless there are “real changes” within in the agency.
“Si Commissioner Lapeña po maayos naman yang tao pero kelangan nyang tingnan kung bakit hindi nya nagagawa yung trabaho nya?” Aquino said at a regular forum in the Senate on Thursday.
Considering that Lapeña was former head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), the senator asked why the alleged shabu shipment still managed to slip past through the BoC under his watch.
“Ngayon ang tanong bakit nalusutan na naman sya?” Aquino asked. “Yun ho siguro yug kailangan nyang e-explain at ano yung action na gagawin nila ukol dito.”
And to Lapeña, the senator asked: “Anong aksyon ang gagawin mo ngayon na aminado ka na may pumasok na droga sa ilalim ng ilong mo?”
Aquino believes that this issue should be “big enough” for Lapeña to consider leaving his post.
“Pero at the end of the day, maglalagay ka na naman kasi isipin mo ha, inilagay na nga dyan head ng PDEA, ganun pa rin ang nangyari. Kung baga, yung pinaka eksperto na sa isyu na ito ang nilagay mo, nangyari pa rin yan.”
“Anong pagbabago kelangan nating gawin para maayos ho natin yan?” he further asked.
But Lapeña has repeatedly said he would not vacate his post yet.
“The President placed me there to accomplish a job and that is to stop corruption and increase revenue collection. I have been delivering and I still have to do a lot,” he said in a press briefing in Malacanang.
“On the command responsibility aspect, it applies when a violation of law was brought to your attention and you did not do anything,” he added. /muf
READ: Lapeña backpedals, now thinks magnetic lifters contained ‘shabu’