Customs intel head Villanueva returns to PDEA

In a press conference, the BOC chief noted that the order sending Villanueva back to PDEA is necessary, adding that he and PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino both agreed to it. (Photo: Wilkins Villanueva/Facebook)

MANILA — Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Isidro Lapeña has ordered acting Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) head Wilkins Villanueva to return to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) after serving for two months in his current post.

In a press conference, the BOC chief noted that the order sending Villanueva back to PDEA is necessary, adding that he and PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino both agreed to it.

“It is the mutual understanding between me and the head of PDEA that of course one consideration is the additional personnel at this point in time,” he said.

Lapena added that he could not say if Villanueva would still be designated to his earlier post as PDEA-National Capital Region (NCR) head, noting that it is the discretion of the current PDEA leadership on where to deploy its officers and men.

Aside from the former CIIS chief, he said, some seven or eight PDEA personnel, who were detailed to the CIIS, have also been sent back to their mother unit.

Lapeña also clarified that Villanueva did not resign.

“He did not resign, he just returned to his old unit. He was just detailed at the BOC, I designated him as officer-in-charge of the CIIS,” he explained.

Villanueva was one of the first officers tapped by Lapena from PDEA to join him at the BOC, when President Rodrigo Duterte appointed him to head the bureau last August 30, replacing Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon.

He was among the PDEA officers who took part in the raid at a warehouse in Valenzuela City last May that yielded PHP6.4 billion worth of shabu from China. (PNA)