New job for Faeldon won't help him get out of detention

MANILA, Philippines — The appointment of resigned Bureau of Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon to a new post would not help him get out of detention for snubbing a Senate probe, Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel said.

President Rodrigo Duterte last December 22 appointed Faeldon as a deputy administrator of the Office of the Civil Defense. The appointment came some four months after Faeldon gave up his Customs post.

Sought for comment, Pimentel said Faeldon’s new job has "no effect" on the latter’s stay in detention after he was cited in contempt for refusing to appear in the Senate hearings on the shipment of multi-billion peso worth of shabu from China.

“The solution to a problem like contempt is to purge yourself of the contempt. Not a new appointment or position in government,” Pimentel said in a text message on Thursday.

Faeldon resigned as chief of the customs bureau in August at the height of a controversy over the entry from China of some P6.4 billion worth of shabu. 

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon launched an investigation into the shabu smuggling but failed to make Faeldon attend any of its hearings.

In refusing to show up before the committee, Faeldon cited the “partiality of some of its members who have lied to malign (him) and other innocent resource persons.”

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Faeldon, in his new job with the OCD, may discharge his duties from his detention room at the Senate.

Since Faeldon has not been convicted of any crime yet, he is not barred from assuming an appointive or even an elective position, Lacson added.