(Eagle News) — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday filed economic sabotage and graft raps against former Bureau of Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and several others over the alleged smuggling of rice valued at $680,000 through the Cagayan de Oro port.
Lacson also charged National Food Authority Administrator Jason Aquino; lawyer Tomas Alcid, former district collector of the Port of Cagayan de Oro; lawyer Geniefelle Lagmay, customs liaison officer to NFA of the Office of the BOC Commissioner; Filomena Lim; Rowena Lim; Lucio Roger Lim Jr.; Joselito Lopez; Josephine Rizalde; and Ambrosio Ursal Jr. for “conspiring to smuggle” 40,000 bags of rice to Cebu Lite Trading, Incorporated without payment of the necessary Customs taxes and duties and with “fake” import permits.
Also charged for grave misconduct were Aquino, Alcid, and Lagmay, who the senator said made a “flagrant disregard of the established rules of procedure of the BoC in allowing the smuggling of rice shipments.”
He asked that the three be issued a preventive suspension, and that a life imprisonment sentence be imposed on them and the others charged, including Faeldon.
Conspiracy
According to Lacson, Aquino “gave undue favor to CLTI” after he allowed the release of the shipments– 21,800 bags of Vietnamese long grain white rice, valued at $370,600; and 18,200 bags of the same rice, valued at $309,400— on May 17, despite the fact they had been declared “abandoned and forfeited” in favor of the government on April 26.
He said that in the first place, “there is no law or NFA rule and regulation granting the Administrator the authority to issue permits with retroactive effect, much more issue permits without the requisite payment of taxes and duties being made.”
He said Faeldon thereafter also ordered the shipments released to CLTI.
As such, he said “it is clear that there was a conspiracy between and among the respondents to facilitate the unlawful release of the said rice shipments.”
“When several Customs personnel noticed the irregularities, desperate and highly irregular acts were committed by Administrator Aquino, Atty Lagmay, Collector Alcid and Commissioner Faeldon to make it appear that the applicable rules and regulations were followed to justify and facilitate the unlawful release of CLTI’s rice shipments,” Lacson said.
Because of their acts that he said were tantamount to “large-scale” smuggling, the senator said “the government was deprived of the use and benefit of the abandoned shipments valued at $680,000.00, or P34,043,520.00, computed based on the prevailing exchange rate of P50.064 to $1.”
“Sabi nila bakit ako obsessed. Obsessed talaga ako to prove a point,” Lacson told reporters.
He singled out Faeldon, who he said “keeps on challenging (him)” despite what he said was the fact that he was only telling the truth.
P100-million “pasalubong”
Earlier, Lacson also accused Faeldon of receiving a P100-million “pasalubong” as BoC chief.
Faeldon denied the allegations, and filed an ethics complaint against the senator.
The Senate ethics committee has held in abeyance Faeldon’s ethics complaint, however, noting that the former BoC chief has yet to attend Senate blue ribbon committee hearings on BoC corruption, and on the P6.4-billion drug shipment that slipped through the agency in May.
Faeldon is at present detained at the Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms, where he surrendered after being cited in contempt for his refusal to attend those hearings.