In the wake of a scandal over the early release of almost 2,000 convicts that were doing time for heinous crimes, President Rodrigo Duterte insists he still trusts the man he just fired from the Bureau of Corrections (Bucor), Nicanor Faeldon.
In a speech in Naga City, Cebu, after firing Faeldon, he said: “Faeldon, he’s a straight edge. I still believe in him.”
Earlier, the President said he fired Faeldon for disobeying his orders when he insisted before a Senate panel that the notorious rapist and murderer, Antonio Sanchez, was eligible for early release under the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law.
News of Sanchez’s impending release had inflamed public outrage and revealed that the Bucor had, in fact, already freed almost 2,000 convicts who were doing time for drug trafficking and heinous crimes such as rape and murder. Worse, a Senate investigation has uncovered what appears to be a syndicate within Bucor that sells GCTA credits to inmates.
After being fired, Faeldon expressed shock and outrage at the sale of GCTA credits, insisting he knew nothing about it while acknowledging that such a scam could exist.
In his latest remarks, the President said he still trusts Faeldon because he was the one who alerted him about the fake tax stamps that a large tobacco company used to avoid paying taxes in March 2017. “If he was quiet and asked for hush money, he could have made millions,” Duterte said of Faeldon.
Instead, the government raided the company’s warehouse and earned P30 billion in a settlement over the an estimated P37 billion in tax liabilities.
This is all and good, but the President seems to have a selective memory when it comes to Faeldon.
He doesn’t relate, for example, how P6.4 billion worth of crystal meth or shabu slipped through port inspectors when he was chief of the Bureau of Customs.
He doesn’t say, either, that Faeldon, as chief of the Bureau of Corrections, was also responsible for the early release of three of the men convicted of the infamous 1997 rape and murder of the Chiong sisters, Marijoy and Jacqueline.
But Senator Panfilo Lacson is correct when he says that trust is something personal to the person giving it, and that the President’s opinion should be respected. On the other hand, that trust has been tested against the actual record—and most objective observers would say Faeldon falls short of deserving it.
The old proverb says “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Do we really need a third go-around with damaged goods?
