Duterte transfers Isidro Lapeña to TESDA

Marina head takes over as top-to-bottom revamp implemented in BOC

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has ordered the transfer of Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) as he implements a top-to-bottom revamp in the Bureau of Customs (BOC). 

Duterte also directed former Armed Forces chief and Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) administrator Rey Leonardo Guerrero to replace Lapeña.

“General Lapeña will move to TESDA. I will promote you to a Cabinet member position,” Duterte said during the 117th anniversary of the Philippine Coast Guard in Port Area, Manila yesterday.

He has yet to find a new administrator for MARINA.

Lapeña, who refused to resign as head of the BOC, replaces TESDA director-general Guiling Mamondiong.

Hours before the reassignment, he said in a television interview, “I have a mandate. The President told me to stop corruption and increase revenue collection, it is just that the job is not yet finished. I will continue doing this for as long as the trust of the President is there.” 

Erastus Sandino Austria, Lapeña’s spokesman, also denied there was inconsistency from the commissioner, referring to the reversal of Lapeña’s statements about the four magnetic lifters that passed through the BOC and which allegedly contained shabu.

He said Lapeña based his position on facts and evidence available to him during the early stages of the discovery of the four magnetic lifters in Cavite last August.

“My position last August – that the magnetic lifters found in GMA (General Mariano Alvarez town), Cavite were empty – was based on the evidence we have at the time,” Lapeña said in a statement. 

Amid the controversy on the tons of shabu that slipped past the BOC, Duterte ordered all Customs commissioners and section heads to be placed on floating status to give the new Customs chief a free hand in handling the affairs of the bureau. 

“Just give Jagger (Guerrero) a chance, I am ordering the freezing of all – all section, department, units of the Bureau of Customs out. I am ordering the Coast Guard to provide (men to guard) the outer periphery,” Duterte said.

Duterte also wants Guerrero, known as “Jagger” among his peers, to take his oath at once.

“Out lahat (all), out to the last man. The commissioners are out, the section heads are out. The entire (bureaucracy)…,” Duterte said, ordering Guerrero to report immediately to his office today (Friday) to get further instructions.

“My orders to you Jagger, place them on floating status,” he added. “You can now order the suspension of Sid (Lapeña). Stop lahat yan (everything).”

If the operators are corrupt, Duterte stressed, no amount of shabu can be found even if the bureau had installed modern x-ray detectors.

He said the BOC should not worry about delays in the releasing of shipment if they suspect something is wrong.

Lapeña, who was among the guests at the Coast Guard anniversary, seemed surprised about his transfer since he expressed belief earlier at a Palace press briefing that he does not see himself resigning despite the shabu controversy.

He thanked Duterte for promoting him to the Cabinet.

“So Sid, the work at TESDA is quite something of a – it could be messy at times. But I’m sure your training as a military man just like Jagger would all go well for the country,” the President said.

Duterte warned the officers anew of how he loathes corruption in government.

The decision to transfer the BOC chief came just a day after he expressed belief in the integrity of Lapeña, who had served him while he was mayor of Davao City.  

Duterte defended his move to put retired military and police generals in key posts of his administration – noting how they quickly enforce his orders.

“I have nothing against the bureaucracy. But if you want something done and done fast per your order, you get a military man,” Duterte said. “And if there are some misgivings about any orders coming from me, rest assured that I’m a lawyer, that I do not give illegal orders. You can be very sure that when I say ‘do it and do it fast,’ do it because that is what is utterly lacking in this country.”

Duterte said he could not rely on people who would think twice when he wants to get things done because his term of six years is not enough to fulfill his promises to Filipinos.

 No warrantless arrest

While Duterte publicly ordered the arrest of Customs intelligence official Jimmy Guban over the shabu shipment that slipped through the ports, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo clarified that the Chief Executive will not allow warrantless arrest. 

“No, actually, when he did that, the assumption is there was a pending warrant for his arrest. If there is, then enforce it. If there is none, then the directive of the President is just to bring him to the NBI so that he will be investigated,” Panelo said, referring to the National Bureau of Investigation.

He added that the Palace will abide by the terms of the custody of Guban, who has been under detention at the Senate.

At a press briefing in Malacañang earlier yesterday, Panelo said Lapeña still enjoys the full trust and confidence of the President. The former police general was transferred to another post later in the afternoon during the anniversary of the Philippine Coast Guard in Manila.

In the morning, Lapeña maintained that he does not see any reason for him to resign despite the squabbling that happened between him and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino over the alleged shabu shipment.

Lapeña was at Malacañang yesterday where he also submitted a report on the investigation to the Office of Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. He said he was not resigning because his job at the BOC, including increasing revenues for the government, was not yet done.

He added that the BOC has collected P598 billion, which is P100 million more compared to P458-billion revenue last year.

“We are hitting our target,” Lapeña stressed.

He maintained that there is no cover-up on the shabu shipment, contrary to what is being painted in the media.

1.6 tons of shabu

Meanwhile, PDEA director general Aquino yesterday said the weight and value of the shabu shipment found in Cavite could be almost twice the initial estimates, as authorities now believe the empty magnetic lifter contained 1.6 tons of shabu worth P11 billion.

Aquino revised upward his initial “conservative” estimate that a ton of shabu, worth P6.8 billion, was stashed inside the empty magnetic lifters found in a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez town.  

The conclusion that the shabu shipment may have been bigger than initially estimated, he said, came after they conducted a weighing test earlier this month with the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). 

This test found that the weight of the recovered magnetic lifters, including its accessories, power supply and other paraphernalia, and the weight indicated in the shipment’s bill of lading, had a difference of 1.618 tons. 

The magnetic lifters were supposedly modified and had a hollow space used to conceal the contraband. 

This new evidence seemingly was the final straw that made Customs commissioner Lapeña change his tune and concede that there were illegal drugs inside the empty magnetic lifters that slipped through his agency. 

After engaging in a word war with the BOC chief, Aquino said he is “very happy” and feels vindicated as Lapeña recanted his previous statement that there was no shabu inside the shipment that entered the country last August. 

He added that the PDEA and BOC could now “move on” and conduct a joint investigation on the shipment instead of being at loggerheads, which only hampered their work.

Even with the development, Aquino is not blaming BOC or Lapeña for the shabu that slipped into the country, which he said is now circulating in the streets of Metro Manila. Prices of the illegal drug have hit a low of P1,400 per gram, reports said. 

The lead anti-narcotics agency is still trying to track down the shipment as Aquino said he was seemingly deceived by his former second in command, ex-PDEA deputy director general for administration Ismael Fajardo, on the whereabouts of the illegal drug. 

Fajardo supposedly told him that only a kilo of shabu was recovered from three townhouses in Taguig City where the shipment supposedly made its way after the drug syndicate retrieved it from Cavite.

Aquino said he doubts Fajardo’s report and that it was only “for show.” Fajardo has been sacked from his post and is undergoing a lifestyle check amid reports that he owned several properties.

Fajardo, Guban and dismissed Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto are the three main figures implicated in the shabu shipment.

Aquino said the investigation on the shabu shipment is “quite slow (medyo mabagal)” because of various obstacles. 

He said he hopes the Congress hearings may be concluded within a month.  – With Romina Cabrera, Evelyn Macairan