(Eagle News) — Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon on Friday defended his move to hire current and retired sports athletes as “technical assistants,” saying they “bridge the gap” between his office and the general public.
“..We need to bring in effective communicators, so (we have) iconic players like Kenneth Duremdes, Marlou Aquino who have millions of Filipino followers because the Filipinos love basketball,” Faeldon said in a press conference.
According to Faeldon, apart from improving the sentiments of the public about the agency, and getting feedback from the ground, these hires organize sports clinics for the enjoyment of the bureau’s employees and their children.
As for those assigned in the Intelligence Group, Faeldon said the fact that people would not expect retired and current athletes to gather information makes them ideal for the job.
“So they are the most effective intelligence information gatherer…But today they are no longer effective because it has been exposed, their cover has been exposed,” Faeldon said.
The Customs chief added that he consulted Commission on Audit Chair Miguel Aguinaldo and others before making the move to hire.
Faeldon’s hiring of former and current athletes was revealed on Thursday’s House hearing into a P6.4-billion drug shipment that entered the country.
Lists provided by the Bureau of Customs showed these hires included, among others, Alyssa Valdez, Edward Joseph Fehl, Gherome Ejercito, and Benzon Franco, apart from Aquino and Duremdes.
The lists showed that eight have been assigned to the Office of the Commissioner, while the others were placed under the Intelligence Group and the Office of the Deputy Commissioner, among others.
Others were assigned in two offices at the same time.
Calls to resign
Before the controversy involving the hiring of the current and former athletes, Faeldon was already facing mounting calls to resign for alleged incompetence, after he refused to conduct a “control-delivery” of all six crates containing the shabu, as suggested by Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency National Capital Region director Wilkins Villanueva.
Lawmakers had said the Customs chief should have listened to Villanueva, who had jurisdiction over the case because of its drug-related nature.
Villanueva and several congressmen have also accused Faeldon of bungling what could have been strong cases against the two Taiwanese believed behind the shipment because of his refusal to listen.
