Ramon Farolan is wrong in saying that the Armed Forces of the Philippines “was never able to recapture” Nicanor Faeldon after he escaped from detention (“Welcome to the Club, Senator Faeldon,” 2/5/18). He escaped on Dec. 14, 2005, but was captured on Jan. 27, 2006. Excerpt below from Wikipedia:
“He was recaptured on Jan. 27, 2006, in Mandaluyong City, with Capt. Candelaria Rivas (JAGS), a military lawyer with the Judge Advocate General’s Office, who was prosecuting his and the other alleged mutineers’ court martial case.” Rivas was later found guilty by a military court.
Farolan seems to be a great fan of Faeldon. With brazen temerity, the writer even compared Faeldon to the great Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya. What an insult to the memory of these two great men of world history.
In contrast, Faeldon never amounted to anything in his life except his failed coup attempts and his arrogance. He also showed his immense incompetence at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) with his claim that he was not involved with the smuggling of the P6.4 billion worth of “shabu” (crystal meth) from China. Of course, this is assuming that he was not involved in corruption.
However, this is contrary to the information of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that he exposed in his privilege speech and later confirmed by no less than former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chair Isidro Lapeña, who replaced Faeldon at the BOC.
In military service, he did not even reach the rank of
major to lead a battalion like Maj. Gen. Alexander Balutan
of the Marine Corps in his younger days.
It is most unfortunate that Farolan looks up to the discredited Faeldon, who appears to have a misguided messiah complex. I agree with blue ribbon committee chair Sen. Richard Gordon that Faeldon should see a psychiatrist. He badly needs professional help to preclude any future tragedy similar to what recently happened in Cuba with the son of the late Fidel Castro.
R.B. RAMOS, rbrpilipinas@gmail.com