The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) are in hot water for auctioning off 140 kilos of illegal drugs, worth P1.8bn, which was recently smuggled into the country.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the Senate Public Order Committee, said over the weekend that he would summon Commissioner Leon Guerrero and two of his classmates in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), retired Gen Donato San Juan, and Gen Raniel Ramiro, at the opening of the 18th Congress.
Lacson said he would also summon PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino to have him explain why and how the illegal drugs were smuggled into the country, despite strict guarding and monitoring of all the shipment arriving in the country, and what the anti-narcotics’ agency’s participation was in the controversial auction.
The senator also wants to know why the officials have decided to auction the drugs, instead of confiscating and destroying them, as provided under Republic Act 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
“You don’t have to think to see the holes in the stories of these officials,” Lacson said in a radio interview.
Customs and PDEA officials claimed that they intentionally auctioned the contraband as bait to draw out and arrest the real importers of the illegal drugs, but the senator did not buy it, saying it’s unbelievable and a deception to the public.
Lacson stressed that such a move was not only illegal but also stupid, as the purported drug importers knew the auctioned goods were thoroughly inspected for contraband.
Guerrero is the third commissioner appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to the BOC, replacing retired P/Gen Isidro Lapena and former Philippine Marines officer Nicanor Faeldon, who were both hounded by controversies in connection with the smuggling of multi-billion peso-shabu.
Guerrero is a member of PMA class 1984 while Lapena also graduated from the same academy in 1975. Aquino was a graduate of PMA class 1985.