President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday fired all commissioners and department heads of the Bureau of Customs as the agency was rocked with drug smuggling scandal.
“I am ordering the freezing of all, all section, department units of the Bureau of Customs out,” Duterte said in a speech during the anniversary of the Philippine Coast Guard in Manila.
READ: Lapeña out of Customs
“Out lahat. To the last man, out. The commissioners are out, the department heads, out,” he added.
The President made the announcement as he moved Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
Lapeña is under fire after a shipment of P6.8 billion worth of shabu allegedly slipped past the BoC under his watch.
READ: Lapeña backpedals, now thinks magnetic lifters contained ‘shabu’
The former military official earlier said the four magnetic lifters discovered in Cavite did not contain illegal drugs.
But he later backpedalled, saying that the lifters did contain shabu.
Amid the shabu scandal, he has denied that he was involved in a cover-up on the smuggling of drugs in the country. /je