MANILA (UPDATED) - President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon to the Office of Civil Defense.
Faeldon was appointed as deputy administrator of the OCD, a disaster-response agency under the Department of National Defense. He will replace Rodolfo Demosthenes Santillan.
Faeldon quit as Customs chief after being implicated in the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China into the port of Manila.
Faledon is currently detained at the Senate after he refused to attend the chamber’s hearings on the drug smuggling scandal.
In a statement, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said their agency did not request for Faeldon but they "welcome him with open arms."
"Nabakante iyung Dep Director III ng OCD and Undersecretary (Ricardo) Jalad was in the hunt for replacement. We did not request for Nick Faeldon nevertheless we welcome him with open arms the Team OCD. He is honest, dedicated and competent and he would be an asset to the organization," the statement read.