Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) — Not one, but three resignation letters were submitted by Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon to President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte disclosed this on Thursday amid calls for Faeldon’s resignation over the multibillion-peso shabu mess.
“Hindi ko siya dedepensahan. Si Faeldon has written me thrice, tulo, asking me to relieve him. Noon pa ‘yan pag-umpisa pa yan,” Duterte said in a speech before policemen in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental.
Translation: “I won’t defend him. Faeldon has written me thrice, asking me to relieve him. That was a while ago when the issue started.”
The President quoted Faeldon as saying, “Hindi ko natupad ‘yung pangako ko sa’yo… Hindi ko na-control sir, hindi ko talaga kaya e (I failed to fulfill my promise to you. I wasn’t able to control it, I really can’t).”
Duterte never blamed Faeldon for the shipment of P6.4 billion worth of metamphetamine hydrocholoride or shabu that slipped through the Customs bureau in May.
Duterte blamed instead the whole bureau, which “is corrupt to the core.”
He again backed Faeldon amid calls for him to quit.
“Faeldon, I will stand by him. He’s really honest. Kaya lang nalusutan siya because lahat diyan sa Customs, corrupt (It just slipped past him because everyone else in Customs is corrupt),” Duterte said in a speech on Wednesday.
Also read: Duterte backs Customs chief Faeldon
Senator Richard Gordon on Thursday advised the President to let go of Faeldon.
“Mr. President, kung yung taong linagay mo nalulunod, at sinasagip mo, at pumipiglas – pati ikaw nalulunod, ilunod mo na yun, kaysa sa sumasama ka pa,” Gordon said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source.
[Translation: Mr. President, if the person you endorsed is drowning, and you try to save him but he struggles against you – and you’re almost drowning too, leave him to drown instead of joining him.]
Also read: Customs commissioner should resign, Gordon says
Gordon chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee which is investigating alleged irregularities at the Customs bureau that may have led to the entry of the 600-kilogram shabu shipment. This was later on seized from two different warehouses in Paso de Blas and Barangay Ugong in Valenzuela City.
Read more: Senate alleges corruption and incompetence in Customs bureau over biggest haul yet of shabu smuggled into PH
CNN Philippines’ Regine Cabato contributed to this report.
