Probe customs officials, too

Batas Mauricio

SO, are we being led to forget that some P6 billion worth of shabu — whose sale, distribution, and use among Filipinos in every nook and cranny of the Philippines catapulted a mere city mayor to the presidency of the country in 2016 — actually was allowed to be shipped out of the Bureau of Customs?

I mean, all the noise and brouhaha over some lady lawyer calling the top official of the House of Representatives an “imbecile” and the frenzied reaction of the top officials’ trusted lieutenants appear to be desperate distractions and diversionary tactics to keep away from the public mind the true crime in all these, which is the bringing in of tons and tons of shabu into our country.

It would seem there is a conspiracy to “kill” the real news here, which is the mockery of President Duterte’s fierce anti-illegal drugs campaign that has resulted in the murder of thousands of people already who are merely suspected of peddling shabu. I believe we Filipinos should all ask: why are heads not rolling yet at the Bureau of Customs despite its officials’ clear culpability in the P6 billion shabu scandal?

We should also really ask Customs Commissioner Nick Faeldon to explain why this big amount of shabu was allowed to enter the Bureau and then, as some quarters are claiming now, was even allowed to be released through its so-called “Express Lane”. Did he know of this? If he did, what did he do to prevent the shabu from being shipped out of the Bureau?

Faeldon must also show to the Filipino people and, of course, to his boss, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and even to President Duterte, the steps he has already undertaken to investigate the scam, and then to prosecute those who maybe responsible for it.

At the very least, considering the multi-million peso intelligence fund of the Bureau of Customs, he must be able to assure the nation that the government already knows who is behind this caper, and what measures are already in place to make him or her, or even them, answerable for what they had done, or they may still be doing.

Then, I am sure there could be one or two, or more, officials of the Bureau of Customs who must have lent their assistance in this smuggling of P6 billion worth of shabu. Who knows, some of them may even be parading themselves as Filipinos with patriotic hearts, hiding their true nature as wolves in sheep’s clothing, so they could go on with their nefarious ways unmolested.

Is Faeldon even trying to determine who these officials are? I am asking this because there seems to be no news about this.

Again, considering the vast powers of his office, I am sure he already has a working knowledge, at least, of these officials, so the question is, what has he done against them?

If the Bureau of Customs failed to stop the smuggling of an evident contraband like shabu, valued in billions of pesos yet which even passed through its doors and gates, what other contrabands are being smuggled left and right into the county now which the Bureau is unaware of or has failed to check?

Must the Bureau continue to be led by its evidently incompetent officials?

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com