Yearender PDEA: Top officials sacked after public tiff

MANILA, Philippines - Reports of infighting between the top two officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency stole the limelight from the PDEA’s achievements for 2012.

In September, then PDEA deputy director general for operations Carlos Gadapan went public with allegations that then PDEA director general Jose Gutierrez Jr. masterminded his removal from office through an order from Malacañang.

Gadapan, a former policeman, said the order did not state the reason for his removal from office.

Holding the rank of assistant secretary in the agency, he was a presidential appointee. He theorized that his sacking was the alleged handiwork of Gutierrez.

According to Gadapan, he earned Gutierrez’ ire when he approached his boss about the supposed gambling activities of the latter’s wife. He claimed the wife had been incurring debts because of her gambling and even showed checks supposedly proving those debts.

Gutierrez denied he had worked on Gadapan’s relief from his post, saying the order came from the Palace and that the decision was beyond his power.

He also hit back at Gadapan, saying the latter was being investigated for alleged corruption.

Gutierrez even claimed drug syndicates, who wanted him out as head of the agency, were the ones firing up the controversy to discredit him and malign his wife.

Gadapan denied the allegation of corruption and irregularity against him and even said it was not him who had the access to the funds of the agency.

The trading of barbs between the two PDEA officials came at a time when the agency was being probed by the National Bureau of Investigation.

Gutierrez’s wife, Estrella, eventually came out and denied the allegations against her and her family. She said whatever debts she had incurred were related to her flower shop business, which she said had all been paid for.

In an interview, Estrella even accused Gadapan of being in cahoots with people whom she said had wanted to extort money from her.

Fallout

Following the controversy, there had been talks that Gutierrez would also be removed from the agency by President Aquino.

There had been rumors that he had resigned – something that Gutierrez had repeatedly denied. But he was quick to add that he would be willing to step down once Malacanang told him to do so, saying he was serving at the pleasure of the President.

On the afternoon of Oct. 16, as news broke out that the new head of the agency – retired police general Arturo Cacdac Jr. – had taken his oath in Malacanang, Gutierrez was caught unaware that he had been replaced.

As the second in command in the PNP as deputy chief for administration, Cacdac was once task force commander of the PNP’s Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force.

When The STAR was talking to Gutierrez at around 5 p.m. that day to ask him about talks that he had resigned and that there was already a new head of the agency, Gutierrez denied ever tendering his resignation.  He was then still unaware that there was already a new PDEA chief.

Later that evening, Cacdac talked to The STAR and said he took his oath at past 3 p.m. in Malacañang. 

Crackdown

This year saw the PDEA cracking down on high-profile targets, including drug laboratories in a posh subdivision.

In January, the agency busted three shabu laboratories in Ayala Alabang Subdivision in Muntinlupa City.

One of the operations happened on Jan. 6, when agents raided a clandestine laboratory at 504 Acacia Drive and arrested Chinese nationals Ken Ming Chao alias Lam Tse Kin, 49, Choi Yiu Kit, 33, Choi Yiu Chun, 33, Kwok Chi Keung, 42, and Lam Ka Chun, 51.

Four truckloads of evidence – including drug manufacturing equipment, drug precursors and manufactured shabu – were hauled from the raided property.

The one-hectare property was under the management of estate administrators of the late Consuelo Madrigal. It was rented out to a Chinese national.

On Jan. 13, a house at 536 Country Club Drive and another one at 119 Kanlaon Street were simultaneously raided after they were found to have been used by their Chinese lessees in shabu manufacturing.