Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon with Sen. Richard Gordon. Photo courtesy of the Office of Senator Richard Gordon
Resigned Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon will be indefinitely held at the Senate until he decides to show up and answer allegations in the hearing on the P6.4 million-worth of shabu shipment from China, Senator Richard Gordon said on Monday.
Faeldon turned himself in to the Senate before noon Monday but snubbed the blue ribbon committee’s invitation for him to appear in the Senate investigation.
Faeldon instead went straight to the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) where Gordon met him an hour later.
Gordon suspended the hearing for a ten-minute recess and went down the OSAA office to personally talk to Faeldon.
In an ambush interview after their brief meeting, Gordon said Faeldon “humbly” maintained that he would not attend the hearing.
“Hindi naman siya nagmamatigas. Humble naman siya, magalang. Sabi niya, ‘yon ang decision niya na hindi siya haharap dito,” Gordon said.
Asked if Faeldon could be considered arrested by the Senate, Gordon said: “No, (because) he did not defy the Senate.”
Gordon said the former Marine captain was just not willing to go to the Senate hearings if Senators Panfilo Lacson and Antonio Trillanes IV will be there.
The senator then advised Faeldon to file an ethics case against Lacson if he felt offended by the allegations Lacson made in his recent privilege speech. Lacson said Faeldon was among the bribe takers in the BOC.
Faeldon also took offense at Trillanes’s earlier statement that he was “at the heart” of the controversy within the agency.
“‘Yung atake sa kanya ni Trillanes, sa kanya napaka-unfair na nahusgahan na siya. ‘Yung mga lahat ng bumoto kay Lacson at Trillanes, wala daw siyang kalaban-laban doon kaya para manalo siya, sa husgado na lang niya ifa-file,” Gordon said. KGA