No work, no pay for Faeldon at OCD

Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon is brought to the Pasay City Jail from the Senate basement, where he had been held since last September after he was cited for contempt by the Senate blue ribbon committee. INQUIRER photo / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

No work means no pay for former Bureau of Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon, who recently took his oath as Deputy Administrator III of the Office of Civil Defense but was detained at the Pasay City Jail on Tuesday.

Defense Secretary and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Chairman Delfin Lorenzana told reporters that his incarceration was “totally unexpected.”

READ: Senate sends Faeldon to city jail

“I was hoping he would be set free sooner so he can start performing his job. Since he is in detention in the Pasay City Jail, obviously, he cannot perform his job,” he said.

The Senate sent Faeldon to the city jail on Tuesday after he was cited in contempt. He was first detained at the Senate holding facility last September after he refused to attend the hearings on the P6.4-billion drug smuggling scandal.

Despite being implicated in smuggling, Faeldon was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to the OCD last December.

But because he is in jail, Lorenzana said Faeldon “will not be entitled to salary as well because of the principle of no work, no pay.”

“Besides he needs to present a daily time record to get his salary which under the present circumstances he won’t be able to do,” he said.

But Lorenzana said he is confident that he will be able to do his job at the OCD once he is released. /jpv