(Eagle News) — Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon received a P107-million “pasalubong” when he took the helm of the Customs bureau, seven million more than the amount Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed he received from Customs players.
In a television interview on Tuesday, Lacson said this was the confirmation given to him by “no less than” Isidro Lapeña, who replaced Faeldon after he resigned amid corruption allegations.
“(Lapeña) confirmed that there’s indeed pasalubong money and he confided to me: ‘Sir, hindi 100 million yung kay Faeldon, P107 million yung inabot,” Lacson said.
According to the senator, Lapeña gave him the information personally in Lacson’s office, prior to a scheduled hearing in the Senate.
The senator said according to Lapeña, based on a source, the “source or one of the sources” of the money were the tax credit certificates which are as good as cash, and which are given to big companies.
Lapeña said that he recalled some of the TCCs he had signed when he found out about it, Lacson said.
Earlier, Faeldon denied Lacson’s accusations, which the senator made in an explosive privilege speech in August.
Faeldon remains detained in the Senate’s Office of the Sergeant at Arms after his refusal to attend subsequent hearings on corruption in the Bureau of Customs, and on the P6.4-billion drug shipment that slipped through the country via Customs express lanes.