Former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon was detained at the Senate on Monday for refusing to testify in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee probe into the PHP 6.4-billion shabu shipment from China.
Faeldon skipped the hearing scheduled at 9 a.m. and turned himself in to the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSSA) at around 12 noon, wearing a white shirt that had the words “Truth is Justice” printed on it.
Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee, tried to convince the ex-Customs chief to testify but he refused.
Gordon later told reporters that Faeldon will be under Senate custody until he testifies or until the Senate allows him to leave.
“Until he decides to come over, until the Senate says ‘you may go,’” Gordon told reporters when asked how long Faeldon will be detained.
The senator also said that Faeldon was firm in his decision to let the courts hear his case and not the Senate.
“Ayaw niya mag testify dito, ang gusto niya mag testify sa husgado (He doesn’t want to testify here in the Senate, he wants to testify in the court),” Gordon said.
During the September 7 hearing, Gordon cited Faeldon in contempt for skipping the seventh Senate probe into the illegal shipment despite being issued with a subpoena.
Faeldon, in a letter to the committee, said that he will only attend the investigation conducted by a competent court “anytime, anywhere” but only when cases are filed against him.
The ex-commissioner also issued a waiver which allows all government agencies that has the authority to probe allegations against him to look into his bank accounts.
Although he continued to have highest respect for the Senate as an institution, Faeldon no longer had faith in the impartiality of some of its members who “maligned” and “prejudged” him.
In a Senate hearing on August 15, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV questioned Faeldon about the existence of corruption in his bureau. Faeldon refused to answer noting that Trillanes had already accused him of being “at the heart” of smuggling shabu into the country.
Faeldon turned emotional stressing that it was “pointless” to answer the senator’s questions because he had already been judged. (PNA)
