2 more Cabinet members on the way out?

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – At least two department secretaries are reportedly on the way out as President Duterte is set to revamp his Cabinet a year after he took office.

Sources yesterday said the President will kick out two Cabinet officials due to “conflict of interest.”

However, the President did not divulge yet who these secretaries are.

Last year, the President let go of former foreign secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., former interior secretary Mike Sueno and National Irrigation Administration chief Peter Laviña.

Meanwhile, the President likewise told resigned Bureau of Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon to take some time off and perhaps get married.

The President said that Faeldon was supposed to get married to his long-time girlfriend last year but he had to postpone it as he was to become BOC commissioner.

The President said he still does not have anything in mind yet as to what new post he would give Faeldon.

Duterte met with Faeldon in Davao City last Thursday.

But a source said a position was offered to Faeldon during the meeting.

The President likewise said he might give Faeldon a position that would not require any confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

“I told him to take a few days off. We will talk about everything after that. Magpahinga ka na lang muna,” Duterte told reporters in Fort Bonifacio yesterday.

Duterte said he still could not think of a post to offer Faeldon, who resigned from the Customs bureau while lawmakers investigated the entry of P6.4 billion worth of shabu in the country.

The President said he does not know if Faeldon is ready to return to government service, adding that the former Customs chief was “downhearted” by recent developments.

Faeldon, a former military officer, has been accused of incompetence and gross negligence for his failure to prevent the entry of the multibillion-peso shabu shipment from China.

“The reason why it took me time (to decide on his resignation), because Congress was investigating or still investigating it. I would have wanted to wait out of respect for the man. He resigned thrice. He offered to resign so I do not have to be burdened with that issue.”

Duterte said Faeldon’s successor, outgoing Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Isidro Lapeña, is a “man of integrity” like his other appointees who used to be from the military or the police.

Police Chief Supt. Aaron Aquino, director of the Southern Luzon Police Regional Office, will succeed Lapeña at PDEA.

Search for DSWD chief

Duterte said he has yet to appoint a successor for former social welfare secretary Judy Taguiwalo, whose appointment was rejected by the Commission on Appointments last month.

He said there have been suspicions that the bulk of the conditional cash transfer fund went to the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the communist rebels, under Taguiwalo’s watch.

Duterte said there were also insinuations that the NPA members had used the money for anti-poverty programs to buy firearms that they can use to expand their membership and to attack government troops.

Taguiwalo is one of the Cabinet appointees endorsed by the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the communists.

But Duterte clarified that he never accused the former social welfare chief of diverting funds to the NPA.

“I did not say that. I said there are reports. I said ‘I do not need that.’ I know they are from the Left that’s why I appointed them. But I said I leave it to the others to pass judgment,” the President said.

Duterte said he has instructed government personnel, including the military, not to discriminate against communist rebels when distributing food.

“If the funds managed by Taguiwalo were for the poor, the NPA also has poor people among its ranks, there are also NPA members who are hungry,” he added.

Meanwhile, authorities from China and Taiwan have joined efforts of local law enforcement agencies to hunt two Taiwanese suspects in the smuggling of some P6.5 billion worth of shabu into the country last May and are believed to be still in the country.

A law enforcement official privy to the investigation said Chen Myin and Jhu Minh Jyun are believed still in the country based on the last tracking of their mobile phones.

A source said several days after elements of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) and the PDEA raided a warehouse in Valenzuela City last May 26 and recovered 604 kilos of shabu hidden inside steel cylinders packed in wooden crates, the two suspects were tracked moving around Metro Manila.

The two suspects disposed of their mobile phones and used another set of numbers but the same were tracked in Caloocan City. The suspects apparently threw away their phones again and their exact whereabouts have not been traced since.

The source said Chinese and Taiwanese authorities are monitoring their ports in case the two enter their respective territories.

The raid was conducted after Xiamen customs authorities provided information on the shipment to their counterparts in the CIIS the day before.

Xiamen customs officials provided some telephone numbers of certain individuals, including that of Chinese businessman Richard Tan/Chen aka Chen Ju Long.

The two suspects have been identified by Fidel Anoche Dy, caretaker of one of the warehouses, as the men who leased the storage facility.

They were also tagged by Chen as the ones who approached him in Xiamen seeking the services of his logistics firm to ship “general merchandise” to Manila earlier this year.

Earlier this month, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided an abandoned townhouse in Sampaloc, Manila and found similar wooden crates with steel printing cylinders, whose insides were empty. The authorities found traces of shabu-like crystals inside the cylinders.

Barangay officials said the townhouse was rented by two Taiwanese nationals, who have abandoned the residence.

The PDEA said if they were packed with drugs, the cylinders would have contained some 300 kilos of shabu.

The NBI last week recommended to the Department of Justice the filing of drug trafficking charges against the two Taiwanese, Chen and six other individuals in connection with the smuggling of shabu that slipped through the Customs express lane. – With Alexis Romero, Paolo Romero, Delon Porcalla, Edu Punay, Ding Cervantes