2 FORMER CUSTOMS MEN NAMED TO NEW POSTS

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed two former Customs officials to new government posts, despite their having been linked to the controversial P6.4-billion smuggled shabu from China. Based on appointment papers signed on November 6 but released by Malacañang on Friday, November 10, Gerardo Gambala was named Director IV of the Office of Transportation Security while Milo Maestrecampo was appointed as Assistant Director General IV of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. Both Gambala and Maestrecampo are former mutineers from the Magdalo, a group of dissident junior military officers who staged the Oakwood mutiny in 2003. Gambala was a Customs deputy commissioner while Maestrecampo was Import Assistant Service director, when the controversy over the P6.4-billion illegal drugs shipment erupted. They were in hot water for their failure to stop the shipment.