The suspended Bureau of Customs official who was supposedly “nowhere to be found” is now actually under the protective custody of the House of Representatives.
Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas said risk management officer Larribert Hilario would appear before the House’s inquiry on Tuesday morning to drop some bombshells.
READ: Customs official blamed for P6-B shabu shipment ‘nowhere to be found’
“The one allegedly suspended, he’s there. He has testimonies that would really shed some light,” Fariñas told reporters on Monday afternoon.
Although he said he would not preempt the testimony, Fariñas hinted that the BoC’s suspension was irregular.
“There’s no such thing as verbal suspension under the Administrative Code, right?” he said in Tagalog. “Pending investigation, you can place the personnel under preventive suspension. But you cannot just say or tell a person that you’re suspended verbally, so that’s would be the problem there.”
Hilario was blamed for allegedly failing to mark the shipment of 605 kilograms of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) worth P6.4 billion as contraband.
During the Senate’s own inquiry on Monday morning, Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon said that “since we suspended him, we cannot contact and locate him.” JE
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