COMM. FAELDON LINKS LACSON SON TO COMENTS SMUGGLING

Faeldon links Lacson, son to cement smuggling

STRIKING BACK Outgoing Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon disputes corruption charges of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, saying the senator’s son undervalued his cement imports. —NIÑO JESUS
ORBETA

TAYTAY, RIZAL—A day after Sen. Panfilo Lacson named him as among the corrupt officials in the Bureau of Customs (BOC), outgoing Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon fired back at Lacson, accusing the senator and his son of cement smuggling.

Faeldon, in a press conference near his home in Barangay Dolores in Taytay, Rizal province, said the senator’s son and namesake, Panfilo Lacson Jr., was the managing director of Bonjourno Trading, a company that the customs commissioner said was cited as the “No. 1 smuggler of cement in the country” by the Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CeMAP) Inc.

Lacson, however, said Faeldon should have filed charges against his son if he had a case against the latter.

“If my son is guilty or he is into smuggling, I will be the one and not (Faeldon) to file a case against him,” Lacson said in a news conference, which he called after the resigned BOC chief made the public accusations.

He said his son had denied any wrongdoing.

Faeldon said that during his one-year stint at the BOC, Bonjourno brought in 67 shipments of cement, 63 of which were valued at P4.6 billion.

He said one of his staff members, a brokerage exam topnotcher, discovered that Lacson Jr.’s company attempted to undervalue by 50 percent the freight cost of at least four shipments.

Faeldon said Lacson’s son declared a freight cost of $8 per metric ton when the prevailing market price was between $16 and $20.

“We discovered the smuggled shipment during our first 12 days in office at [the Bureau of] Customs,” he said.