Calling Senator Panfilo Lacson a “liar,” resigned Bureau of Customs (BOC) commissioner Nicanor Faeldon formally filed an ethics complaint against the senator on Monday.
Faeldon, wearing a white shirt bearing words “Truth and Justice,” was temporarily freed from Senate detention to file before the Senate ethics committee the complaint shortly after 11 a.m.
“Senator Lacson, you are a liar. All your accusations against me are lies,” Faeldon said in an interview.
“If you can prove this, but definitely you cannot prove it kasi lahat kasinungalingan eh (because they’re all lies),” he added.
Lacson, during a privilege speech last August, exposed the massive web of corruption in the BOC. He tagged Faeldon as one of the many top officials of the BOC as bribe takers.
He accused Faeldon of receiving a P100 million “pasalubong” when he assumed office in the agency. Faeldon also topped Lacson’s list of alleged recipients of “tara” or “payola” in the BOC, most of whom were high ranking officials.
Unparliamentary conduct
In the 27-page complaint, Faeldon asked the Ethics committee to find Lacson guilty of unethical, unparliamentary and improper conduct as a senator that he be suspended or expelled from office.
He said Lacson’s corruption allegations against him are “as false as they are baseless, mere figment of his fertile imagination.”
Faeldon said Lacson was “clearly guilty of calumny or character assassination by guesswork, a mean-spirited hatchet job through contrived allegations.”
“By willfully spreading vicious lies, on the Senate session hall, no less, respondent Sen. Lacson failed to uphold the constitution and the laws of the land, specifically, complainant Faeldon’s right to be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, as enshrined in Article 3 of the constitution,” he said.
“Respondent Sen. Lacson thus violated his oath of office, and therefore, he engaged in unethical and improper conduct,” he said.
He also said Lacson provided to disclose material and relevant information on the “multibillion peso cement importation of Bonjourno Trading by (Lacson’s) son Panfilo ‘Pampi’ Lacson Jr.”
Faeldon attached a letter from the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (Cemap) last Aug.3, 2016 asking the BOC to investigate the undervaluation of freight rates and technical smuggling by Pampi’s trading firm.
“In so doing, respondent Sen. Lacson obviously abused his privilege as a Senator, by purposely and cunningly veering away the attention and focus of complainant Faeldon from his then ongoing discreet investigation and case build-up on Bonjourno Trading and its managing director Panfilo ‘Pampi’ Lacson Jr.,” he added.
He said Lacson clearly abused his right and privilege as an incumbent senator and by “lying,” the senator committed serious misconduct. /je
Ex-Bureau of Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon files before the Senate ethics committee a complaint against Sen. Panfilo Lacson. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net