Tension rises in Senate probe as ex-mutineers face off

A clash between Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Bureau of Customs (BOC) chief Nicanor Faeldon broke out during the Senate inquiry into the smuggling of P6.4-billion “shabu” (crystal meth) from China after the latter initially refused to answer the senator’s questions on Tuesday.

An emotional Faeldon relented after conferring with Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the blue ribbon committee, and answered Trillanes’ questions, diffusing the tension.

Trillanes and Faeldon belonged to the Magdalo group that launched a mutiny against the Arroyo administration in 2003. They had a falling out in 2016 during the presidential campaign.

The hearing was followed by the arrest of one of the people being questioned in the shabu smuggling, Kenneth Dong, for a rape case in Parañaque where he had an outstanding arrest warrant.

Dong was about to leave after the hearing when National Bureau of Investigation agents arrested him.

Hold departure orders

The hearing also saw Gordon asking the Bureau of Immigration to issue hold departure orders against Dong and the others—Richard Chen, Manny Li, Fidel Anoche Dee and his sister Emily, Mark Taguba II, Teejay Marcellana, Eirene Tatad and her brother-in-law, Eduardo Dio.

Chen and Li remained in the custody of the Senate a week after the committee cited them for contempt for their evasive answers.

Chen is the owner of Hongfei Philippines, which brought in the cargo that turned out to be 604 kilos of shabu from China on May 17 through Li and Dong, and Tatad’s EMT Trading.

Taguba owns the trucking firm that Dong asked to transport the cargo to a warehouse, owned by Chen and Emily Dee, in Valenzuela City.

Marcellana is the customs broker who dealt with Taguba and Dong. Anoche Dee is the caretaker of the storage unit owned by his sister Emily.

Criminal charges

Vicente de Guzman, NBI National Capital Region director, said at the hearing that the NBI had recommended that Taguba and eight others be charged with violating Section 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Act for the importation of dangerous drugs.

Gordon told reporters that Chen and Li would remain in Senate custody for the next hearing on Aug. 22.

“They have not answered us on who are the others who helped bring out (of the BOC) the drug shipment … and their connections in the BOC,” Gordon said.

The start of the hearing became tense when Faeldon refused to answer Trillanes’ question about corruption in the BOC.

Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV poses a question to Customs Chief Nicanor Faeldon in the continuing senate investigation on the entry of the more than half a ton of the illegal drug Methamphitamine HydroChloride worth $128 million (P6.4 Billion Pesos) which passed through customs from China Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 in suburban Pasay city south of Manila, Philippines. As both houses of congress are probing the entry of the illegal drug from China, Philippine police said Tuesday, simultaneous anti-drug operations in a northern province have left 21 alleged drug offenders dead after they allegedly offered armed resistance against arresting officers. Officials say it is the highest death toll in a single day since President Rodrigo Duterte launched his ‘war on drugs’ in July last year. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Faeldon took issue with Trillanes’ allegation that he was “at the center of the controversy” involving the shabu smuggling.

Gordon suspended the hearing to talk to Faeldon,
who at one point wiped away tears.

To reporters later, Faeldon said he was hurt because “the good guys in the bureau are being persecuted.”

When the hearing resumed, Faeldon answered Trillanes and admitted there was corruption in the BOC.

Trillanes asked him about the payoff system in the BOC involving brokers and bureau officials and employees.

Faeldon admitted he had failed to investigate it because he had been busy manning the 30 collection ports in his the first six months in office.

Also at the hearing, Trillanes sought to find out whether a son of President Duterte, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, was linked to the shabu smuggling and to the “Davao Group,” said to be lording it over in the BOC.

But Taguba said that when he mentioned the vice mayor as part of the Davao Group, he had no personal knowledge about it and that it was just “hearsay.”