Faeldon may face planting of evidence charge over shabu shipment—solon

Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon (right) addresses questions from the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee during the hearing on the P6.4-billion worth of smuggled shabu from China on Monday, July 31, 2017. (FILE PHOTO by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Resigned Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon may face criminal charges of planting of evidence involving 100 kilos of shabu, part of the P6.4 billion drug shipment that slipped through the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) green lane, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

In a press briefing, Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers made this discovery being considered by the House dangerous drugs committee he chairs that conducted an inquiry into the 604 kilos of shabu shipment that slipped past the Customs and ended in two warehouses in Valenzuela City.

He said the committee report on the recommendation of charges will be released either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday.

Barbers said Faeldon may be held liable for planting of evidence for allowing the “controlled delivery” of 100 out of the 604 kilos of shabu to a second warehouse without a written approval of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

READ: House panel may seek charges against Taguba too 

According to Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, “Any person who is found guilty of ‘planting’ any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential chemical, regardless of quantity and purity, shall suffer the penalty of death.”

Death penalty for all heinous crimes was abolished in 2006. The lower House recently approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to reinstate capital punishment on drug-related offenses, including planting of evidence. The bill has yet to be approved by the Senate.

READ: House approves death penalty bill with 217 yes votes 

“We’re looking at this very critical issue. We’re looking, but we’re not sure yet, at possible planting of evidence against Commissioner Faeldon for ordering 100 kilos of shabu to be delivered to another warehouse kung saan nahuli yung Fidel Anoche Dee, yung caretaker,” Barbers said.

Barbers said the Customs brought the 100 kilos of cylinders containing the shabu to a second warehouse in a bid to crack down on the suspects of the drug shipment.

But the controlled delivery was done without the approval of the PDEA Director General, Barbers said.

“Ang sistema kasi sa nangyari, binuksan nila yung warehouse, nakita nila yung 600 kilos of shabu. Ngayon, dinecide nila to bring the 100 kilos, iiwan yung 500 kilos sa isang warehouse, at yun 100 kilos dalin sa isang warehouse para mahuli yung suspects sa kabilang warehouse. Yun ganung method, ang tawag ay controlled delivery. It’s allowed provided there is clearance from the director general of PDEA,” Barbers said.

Barbers said Faeldon may also be liable for bungling of evidence punishable under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

In a separate statement, Barbers said Faeldon and his men raided the warehouse without a search warrant, and even opened the cylinders containing the shabu shipment without the presence of PDEA agents, “thereby committing an illegal raid and contaminating the evidence.”

“Second, he ordered the NBI and PDEA agents to conduct a ‘controlled delivery’ of 100 kilos, out of the total 604 kilos of shabu they seized from the warehouse of Richard Tan to another warehouse. This is tantamount to planting of evidence,” Barbers said.

“Third, a controlled delivery of drugs has to have written approval of the Director General of the PDEA which Faeldon has none,” he added.

The drug shipment that slipped past the Customs bureau became the subject of congressional inquiries that implicated Faeldon, his deputy commissioners and other personalities in the tara system or “grease money” in the Customs bureau.

Faeldon has denied allegations of receiving “pasalubong” while in the Customs bureau, before resigning from his post.

READ: Faeldon denies receiving P100-M ‘pasalubong’ from smugglers

Barbers said Faeldon and the other officials may be held criminally liable for graft for direct bribery in connection with the alleged receipt of tara.

He earlier said Faeldon’s chief of staff Mandy Therese Anderson may be liable for falsification after she signed the Daily Time Records (DTRs) of the basketball and volleyball players, who were hired by the BOC as Technical Assistants and Counter Intelligence Analysts when they played for the BOC’s basketball and volleyball teams.

READ: House panel on dangerous drugs mulls graft raps vs Faeldon over ‘tara’ 

Anderson earlier got involved in a tiff with the lower House after she called Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez an “imbecile” on a social media post for allegedly pushing for the promotion of a favored employee in the Customs.

During its marathon hearings, the House dangerous drugs committee learned that only BOC and National Bureau of Investigation agents were present in the raid of the Hong Fei warehouse owned by Richard Tan in Valenzuela city last May.

There were no PDEA operatives present, and no search warrant was secured before the raid, Barbers said in the statement.

Faeldon allegedly drew up a plan for a “controlled delivery” of 100 kilos of the shabu to a second warehouse for Fidel Anoche Dee, whose name and address was written on one crate containing 100 kilos of shabu, Barbers said.

In a previous House hearing, warehouse caretaker Dee denied participating in the alleged drug shipment through Customs. JE

READ: Shabu shipments to Valenzuela warehouse began in June 2016, says caretaker