PRIB Photo by Romeo Bugante
Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon wants the Senate ethics committee to compel Sen. Panfilo Lacson to prove his allegations that he took bribes at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the ethics complaint he filed against the senator on Monday.
Lacson, for his part, told reporters he would file a criminal case against Faeldon at the Office of the Ombudsman.
“I am now in possession of all the certified true copies of BOC documents and sworn affidavits needed to file a solid criminal case against Faeldon before the Office of the Ombudsman,” Lacson said.
Lacson said he would also inhibit himself from participating in the hearing of his case being vice chair of the committee.
Faeldon filed his complaint at the Senate, where he has been detained at the sergeant-at-arms office for a week now for refusing to testify at the blue ribbon committee hearing on the P6.4 billion worth of shabu shipment from China that slipped past the BOC, as well as allegations by Lacson that he benefited from a payola or “tara” system at his former office.
This as Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon urged senators to view “with extreme caution” the “relentless” filing of ethics complaint filed against a number of senators.
“I am concerned that the frenzy that characterizes the filing of ethics complaints in the Senate has severely cheapened the process and I urge the Senate to be more circumspect in treating these ethics complaints,” Drilon said in a statement.
In a news conference after he filed the complaint, Faeldon repeatedly called Lacson a “liar” and said the ethics committee was the only venue available to him to question the senator’s conduct.
“All your allegations against me are lies. You are a former chief of the Philippine National Police and you should know better how to handle investigations,” Faeldon said, addressing Lacson.
Payola system
Lacson had delivered a privilege speech accusing Faeldon as the leading Customs official benefiting from the payola system at the BOC.
Faeldon also repeated his claim that Lacson was getting back at him because his office was then investigating the senator’s son Panfilo Lacson Jr. over his smuggling of cement.
Told that Lacson planned to file a criminal case against him, Faeldon said: “I will face that case without a lawyer.”
Faeldon also said he would file a separate ethics complaint against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who had accused the former BOC chief of being “at the heart” of the controversy of the smuggling of the shabu shipment from China.
“[This case] is complainant Faeldon’s beacon of hope and ray of light, as it was a fine and shining moment, now indelibly etched in jurisprudence and congressional history, that a legislative body… in a single and unanimous voice said that right is right and wrong is wrong,” the complaint said.
It asked the ethics committee to set a public hearing where Lacson would be required to submit documentary and/or testimonial bases of his “conclusion” that Faeldon was guilty of bribery, graft and corruption.