Lapeña won't resign over shabu controversy

MANILA - Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña on Wednesday said he will not step down from his post because he has yet to accomplish the task President Rodrigo Duterte entrusted him to do in the bureau.

Lapeña has been accused of "covering up" for drug smugglers by denying that the empty magnetic lifters seized in Cavite last August did not contain illegal drugs.

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"I’m not resigning because I still have to accomplish what the President wants me to do in the Bureau of Customs…I can confidently say that I am doing it very well," he told ANC's Headstart.

Deputy Collector Lourdes Mangaoang, who made the accusations against Lapeña, could have been used by drug syndicates "wittingly or unwittingly" in the "media campaign or propaganda campaign trying to discredit" him, he said.

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"All my actions led to the uncovering of the drug syndicates. You will see the hands of the syndicates here, even 'yung players, 'yung smugglers because I have hit them very hard," he said.

"I am going to hit them left and right. I will continue as long as I am the commissioner," he added.