User:BSrap/2017 Philippine Bureau of Customs smuggling scandal

A scandal arose in Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) when P6.4 billion (US$ 126 million) worth of shabu (crystal meth), weighed 605 kilos, from China has been smuggled into the country. The Senate hearing about the smuggling issue commenced on late July 2017.

Events
The Senate begun its first hearing on the smuggling issue on July 31, 2017. On August 1, during the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs investigation, Chairman Robert Ace Barbers reprimanded Bureau of Customs (BOC) chief Nicanor Faeldon for mishandling the drug raid last May 26. Barbers and other committees considered the resignation of Faeldon, stating that resignation will avoid the further embarrassment of President Rodrigo Duterte, who appointed him. Barbers also alleged that the BOC sabotaged its own raid, conducted on May 26 on a warehouse in Valenzuela City where the P6-billion shabu shipment was discovered. Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) regional director Wilkins Villanueva, who joined the May 26 raid, described the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) alleged mishandling of the 605 kilograms of smuggled “shabu”.

Faeldon blamed suspended BOC risk management officer Larrybert Hilario for failure to enter crucial information on an illegal shipment, but Hilario denied this accusation before the Congress on August 2. Despite the mishandle, President Duterte, who implemented the war on drugs, expressed his full confidence in him. Duterte still decides Faeldon's fate as soon as the investigation concludes. On August 2, Faeldon called the House of Representatives and other politicians, who peddles for anyone are "guilty of corruption", shameless.