MANILA, Philippines – Embattled Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon should quit to “spare the President further embarrassment,”  Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Wednesday, August 16.

Alvarez , a key Duterte ally, made the call to Faeldon in an interview with Karen Davila on ANC’s Headstart, when they discussed the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling incident at the Bureau of Customs (BOC)  which has implicated some of its officials.

“Illegal drugs – hindi lang po ito gramo-gramo, hindi lang ito kilo-kilo. Tons po ang pinag-uusapan dito. ‘Yung corruption, malinaw na malinaw na sa committee hearing may corruption. Malaki ‘yung corruption involved dito. So for those two main reasons, I think he should spare the President further embarrassment,” added Alvarez.

(Illegal drugs not by the grams or kilos but by the tons. It’s clear in the committee hearings that there’s corruption here. It’s a huge case of corruption. So for those two main reasons, I think he should spare the President further embarrassment.)

He noted that the case involves illegal drugs and corruption, targets of priority campaigns of the Duterte administration.

Faeldon and the BOC have been under congressional scrutiny as both chambers of Congress began probing how P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China made it past Customs. The haul was eventually found inside a Valenzuela City warehouse.

The BOC chief and his subordinates – including those he had handpicked – have been accused of negligence, incompetence, or corruption in varying degrees.

Duterte had chosen Faeldon, a former mutineer and Marine, to head the BOC, one of the most graft-ridden agencies in the country. 

At least 3 committees in the Senate and House have investigated the case.

The House committees on ways and means and on illegal drugs are drafting their respective committee reports on the probe.

It was not the first time for Alvarez to call for the resignation of a Duterte appointee. Earlier in the year, he urged Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa to resign after it was revealed that corrupt police had kidnapped and murdered a South Korean businessman inside Camp Crame.

Alvarez withdrew his call after Duterte himself declined Dela Rosa’s efforts to step down.

Duterte had earlier said that he still had confidence in Faeldon. The Department of Finance, which supervises the BOC, will hold its own investigation into the incident once the legislative probes wrap up. – Rappler.com