Faeldon returns to Senate for the P6.4-B shabu smuggling probe

Former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon, who has been detained at the Pasay City Jail, returned to the Senate on Monday, as senators resumed their investigation into the P6.4 billion worth of smuggled shabu from China.

Faeldon, now deputy administrator at the Office of Civil Defense, was first detained at the Senate for his refusal to participate in the inquiry but was later transferred to the Pasay City Jail after trading barbs with the chair of the Senate blue ribbon committee, Senator Richard Gordon, during the last hearing of the panel on January 29.

READ: Gordon, Faeldon set off Senate’s BoC corruption hearing in verbal brawl

It was also during the same hearing that Faeldon accused two senators – Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III – of allegedly making “illegal requests” from him when he was at the helm of the Bureau of Customs.

But Drilon and Sotto, in separate interviews, immediately denied the allegation, saying there was nothing illegal with their requests.

READ: Faeldon claims 2 senators made ‘illegal requests’

/kga