Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon (right) addresses questions from the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee during the hearing on the P6.4-billion worth of smuggled shabu from China on Monday, July 31, 2017. (FILE PHOTO by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Embattled Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon has apologized to congressmen who were affected by his statement that some have resorted to influence-peddling.
Yet, he maintained that 鈥渓ess than 10鈥� lawmakers made unreasonable requests and tried to pressure the agency into promoting select employees. He refused to name names, however.
鈥淚 categorically apologize to those who have done nothing to the Bureau. There are very few who have [tried to] influence the Bureau,鈥� Faeldon said during the House of Representatives ways and means committee鈥檚 investigation late聽Wednesday afternoon.
Committee chair Rep. Dakilo Carlo Cua said Faeldon鈥檚 statements 鈥減ut everybody in a bad light.鈥�
鈥淚f you are really serious about it, file a case so you do not damage the institution,鈥� Cua told Faeldon.
Hours before, a defiant Faeldon said in a briefing in Manila: 鈥淚 am appealing to you. You know that your request is a form of corruption but you insist and you even get mad. Shame on you. Stop it.鈥�
The issue of alleged influence peddling first arose聽on Thursday, when Faeldon鈥檚 chief of staff Mandy Therese Anderson accused House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of forcing the permanent appointment of acting Customs Operation Officer聽Sandy Sacluti at the Formal Entry Division of the Port of Manila. JE