Faeldon Fires Back, Accuses Lacson's Son of Big-Time Smuggling

Panfilo “Pampi” Lacson Jr. is in the spotlight right now after being accused of being a big-time cement smuggler by BOC chief Nicanor Faeldon in the latest of the mudslinging contests that politicians in the Philippine government are infamous for.

After being continuously grilled regarding anomalies in the Bureau of Customs, Faeldon turned the tables around on veteran Senator Panfilo Lacson Sr. by accusing the latter’s son of undervaluing the cement shipments for his company Bonjourno by as much as 50 percent, having paid only $8 per metric ton when the market price for the product was actually $16-20 dollars instead. The BOC chief claims that he and his assigned officers found out about this during their first few days in office and says that the younger Lacson underdeclared Bonjourno’s capitalization to evade taxes.

Lacson’s company had only declared a capital of Php 20,000 but imported sixty-seven shiploads of cement totaling to Php 4.6 billion worth instead.

Faeldon backed his claims with documents detailing the actual prices of the items in Bonjourno. This was later corroborated by screenshots posted by DFA consultant and former SunStar Davao journalist RJ Nieto in his Facebook page Thinking Pinoy, taken from Pampi’s Instagram account, showing what appears to be a shipment delivery on a port dock, with a reference to Buffalo Cement in the caption, and another photo showing Pampi and two others. The caption said “Mega warehouse for mega shipment”.

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Pampi Lacson's instagram posts suggest he indeed received a massive shipment of cement in 2016, consistent with Customs Commissioner Nick Faeldon's claims.

Faeldon said Pampi brought in cement into the country despite having only P20,000 in declared capital, which would have made such the 4.6 billion-peso cement shipment impossible. Faeldon claims Pampi underdeclared his company's capitalization to evade taxes.

Pampi's father is Senator Ping Lacson.

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Senator Ping Lacson on the other hand denied the allegations, claiming that his son had never paid any bribe money.

"I asked my son on the assertion of Faeldon that he was delivering money to the commissioner’s office. He said, he has not done so at any time, he has not met Faeldon. He has absolutely no reason to bribe the Customs Bureau. That’s a big lie."

Senator Lacson should probably be schooled on the fact that children in reality, on occasion, do lie to their parents.

In related news, to dispel persistent accusations of receiving millions of pesos in bribe money, BOC chief Nicanor Faeldon took the media on a tour of his own crumbling house, saying that he is still paying for a Php 500,000 loan for the same abode that he has been living in for the past two decades.

Sources: GMA News Online, All Things Pinoy, ABS-CBN News