I am not at all surprised at the claims of Senator Panfilo Lacson that payoffs from entrenched smugglers averaged between P27,000 and P36,000 per container. He got this information from Customs brokers.
No less than Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon says that about 10,000 containers are cleared by Customs every day. Santa Banana, that is a payoff of P270 million daily, and P78.5 billion yearly!
Lacson also said that the 3 p.m. Friday habit of Customs personnel continues. They go to a restaurant on Remedios Street in Malate to share the payoffs. When I was covering Customs many years ago, this was already the norm. It has not changed. You can go to Remedios and ask the waiters there.
This is the practice in the main office; we can only imagine how it is in other parts of the country. If you wonder why illegal drugs still proliferate, now you know why.
This is why President Duterte seems to have no end in his war against illegal drugs. As I have said so many times before, as long as there is demand, there will be no end to the supply.
Let us rewind a bit and look at Customs today, headed by former mutineer Nicanor Faeldon. Some P6.4 billion worth of shabu entered the country through the green/ express lanes. The shipment was later on found in Valenzuela City.
Even granting that the Customs chief was not involved, it is clear that there was smuggling of contraband. Who got the payoffs? We will never know.
Several lawmakers want Faeldon to resign for incompetence. It appears Faeldon would not resign; only the President can fire him, he says. Some people just do not have delicadeza.
He was summoned to Malacañang and there Mr. Duterte reportedly told him to stay on because he still enjoyed his confidence.
I think the President should fire all Customs employees from top to bottom.
***
Reports have it that former President BS Aquino III is critical of President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.
Let me ask him: What did you do during your six-year administration? Nothing!
In contrast, President Duterte set to work immediately upon assuming office. He vowed to eradicate illegal drugs.
Every time BS Aquino opens his big mouth, he only reminds us of his incompetence, vindictiveness, and lack of empathy and compassion for the poor.
Aquino made these statements during the death anniversary of his mother, hailed by some as an icon of democracy. Icon? She did not restore democracy in 1986; she was a mere beneficiary of People Power.
To all Cory Aquino an icon of democracy is a distortion of history.
***
The culture of impunity in the killing of drug suspects is disturbing. The police now claim that narco-politicians fired back at them when they tried to serve warrants.
At least the Parojinogs of Ozamiz were not in isolation like Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa.
What disturbs me no end is that people have become too desensitized to the killings.
***
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano announced that the Philippines and China have agreed to jointly explore the South China Sea, I was disturbed. This is a violation of the Constitution.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said that the language of the Constitution is explicit that the exclusive economic zone is part of the national territory for the enjoyment and exploitation exclusively of Filipinos.
Carpio explained that while the government may enter into contracts with China or other countries, such contracts cannot be done through sovereign agreements.
I agree with Carpio. What Cayetano is proposing is tantamount to conceding sovereign rights to China.
Cayetano should know that Scarborough Shoal is defined as part of Philippine territory.
Carpio said that should the Duterte administration pursue this plan, that would imply that we recognize the sovereignty of China.
Carpio added the decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration only resolved the maritime dispute but not the territorial one.
