Lacson mulls filing of rice smuggling raps vs Faeldon

Sen. Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday that rice smuggling and economic sabotage would be among the cases he would file anytime next week against former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon.

Lacson said he was able to form these cases against Faeldon based, among others, on people at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) who provided him with documents.

“We asked for additional documents and sought and got affidavits so that he would not be able to get away with it,” Lacson told a radio interview.

Faeldon filed last week an ethics complaint against Lacson in the Senate for allegedly peddling lies that he accepted payola from unscrupulous brokers while head of the BOC.

In his radio interview, Lacson also said that among the cases he would file against Faeldon was rice smuggling, violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and economic sabotage under Republic Act No. 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, a new law.

“He is the commissioner. He is the only one who could order the release of smuggled rice,” Lacson said of Faeldon as he acknowledged this was a “test case.”

Lacson said there were other cases against Faeldon that he was developing. —Christine O. Avendaño