MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte fired the head of the Bureau of Customs on Thursday and ordered all top bureau officials replaced after the agency failed to intercept more than a ton of drugs, the second such case in two years.
Duterte has made a bloody fight against drugs the centerpiece of his administration since he won a presidential election in 2016. Thousands of people have been killed in the crackdown.
Duterte said Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena was being removed from his post and all his deputies and top officials would be transferred.
“The commissioners are out, the department heads are out,” Duterte said during a speech at a ceremony commemorating the founding of the coast guard.
He said he was appointing retired army general to take over the bureau and soldiers and members of the coast guard would help him.
Duterte said Lapena would be reassigned to a government training agency.
Lapena, who was at the ceremony, expressed surprise by his transfer and commented briefly to reporters to express his thanks to Duterte for his new posting. He was not available for comment later.
Lapena, a retired police general, has been under pressure since customs authorities failed to detect a shipment estimated at more than a ton of methamphetamines being smuggled into the country in July.
Drug enforcement agents later found traces of the drugs in the containers in which they were smuggled, but the drugs were gone.
Duterte did not refer to that case on Thursday.
The previous head of the customs bureau was removed after a huge amount of drugs were smuggled into the country in May last year.
Duterte sacks all top Philippine customs officials over drugs
Duterte sacks all top Philippine customs officials over drugs
Air India 777 aircraft turns back after drop in engine oil pressure, regulator says
- The aircraft, which was headed to Mumbai, landed safely back in Delhi and the incident will be investigated
- Air India has been under intense scrutiny this year after the June 12 crash of a Boeing Dreamliner killed 260 people
BENGALURU: An Air India Boeing 777 aircraft had to turn back after a drop in oil pressure forced the pilots to turn off one of the jet’s engines, India’s aviation regulator said on Monday.
The aircraft, which was headed to India’s financial capital of Mumbai, landed safely back in Delhi and the incident will be investigated, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement. Modern aircraft are designed to safely fly and land on a single engine, if required. Air India has been under intense scrutiny this year after the June 12 crash of a Boeing Dreamliner killed 260 people. The DGCA has flagged multiple safety lapses at the airline, which was previously owned by the government till 2022. An Air India investigation into why one of its planes conducted commercial flights without an airworthiness permit found “systemic failures,” with the airline admitting it needed to do better on compliance, Reuters reported earlier this month.
On Monday, pilots observed a low engine oil pressure on the B777-300ER aircraft’s right-hand engine during flaps retraction after take-off. The pressure shortly thereafter dropped to zero and the crew shut down the engine and turned back as per procedure, the DGCA said.
“Air India sincerely regrets inconvenience caused due to this unforeseen situation. The aircraft is undergoing the necessary checks,” an Air India spokesperson said in a statement. The aircraft is 15 years old and has flown to locations such as Vienna, Vancouver and Chicago, according to Flightradar24. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident.
