(Eagle News) — The owner of the Valenzuela warehouse where the P6.5-billion drug shipment arrived in May said he did not personally know Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon until he met him on May 25, when Customs personnel raided the warehouse for the contraband.
Richard Tan, owner of Hong Fei Logistics, made the statement as Senate blue ribbon committee Richard Gordon grilled him about several pictures showing him and the Customs chief smiling.
Tan, through an interpreter, said the pictures were taken on May 25, the first time he saw Faeldon.
He said he thought he was helping the Chinese Customs by taking the pictures with him.
Tan also denied knowing there were drugs inside the shipment, and found out about them until Customs personnel showed up and opened the crates in front of him.
But Gordon tried to punch holes into his testimony, saying Tan had said in his submitted affidavit that a Chinese Customs official, Wang Zhi Ding, had told him there were drugs inside the shipment when Wang called him to tell him to alert the Philippine Customs about the contraband.
Tan said that Wang did tell him there were drugs inside, but he wasn’t completely sure there were until Philippine Customs personnel opened the crates on May 25.