Pubdate: Thu, 08 Jul 2004
Source: People's Journal (Philippines)
h=7&day=8&year04
Copyright: 2004 People's Journal
Contact: http://www.journal.com.ph/contactus.asp
Website: http://www.journal.com.ph/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3381
Author: Alfred Dalizon

PDEA IMBROGLIO: TOP EXECS SWAP CHARGES OVER DRUG ARREST

TROUBLE is brewing at the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency with top 
officials at loggerheads with one of their own, controversial former Manila 
police Capt. Reynaldo Jaylo, now head of PDEA's Task Force Hunter.

It all started when PDEA chief  Anselmo S. Avenido, Jr. ordered Jaylo to 
stop using the agency's non-organic personnel in anti-drug operations amid 
several complaints filed before the PDEA, some of them from 
Filipino-Chinese, accusing Jaylo and his men of extortion.

In turn, Jaylo, a former Western Police District anti-narcotics unit chief, 
accused senior PDEA officials led by Avenido and one of his deputies, 
Assistant Secretary Rodolfo N. Caisip, of protecting Wilson Gan, a 
Filipino-Chinese who was arrested for drug trafficking in Valenzuela City.

People's Journal earlier learned that prior to Jaylo's outburst, PDEA 
agents headed by Supt. Gracito Bing L. Barangan raided Gan's residence 
based on the suspicion it was a clandestine shabu laboratory.

The raiders, however, found no evidence that would link Gan to drugs. 
Embarrassed and angry, Gan reportedly berated the PDEA agents and 
threatened to file criminal and administrative charges against them.

A PJ source said that Barangan confronted Gan when he started cursing 
members of his team. Proverbial cooler heads later intervened and pacified 
the two.

Gan, meanwhile, went to the PDEA headquarters to file a complaint against 
Barangan and his men.

For his part, Caisip, a retired police colonel, vehemently denied that Gan 
is his close friend and "kumpare" as Jaylo has been claiming.

"I vehemently deny innuendoes that Wilson Gan is my 'kumpare' as claimed by 
Jaylo who was even quoted as saying he fears a possible whitewash of the 
drug case they filed against Gan," Caisip said.

It turned out that several weeks after his house was raided by PDEA agents, 
Gan was arrested for alleged drug trafficking by Jaylo and his men in 
Valenzuela City.

"The truth of the matter is that there were only two occasions when I have 
seen and talked with Gan. The first one was when he and his business 
partner, Peter Young, went to the PDEA office to file a complaint against 
Superintendent Barangan and his team. The second was during the 
confrontation with Superintendent Barangan at my office," Caisip said.

He said that he was merely asked by Avenido to attend to the complaint 
against Barangan and his team. Caisip said that Barangan and Gan later 
settled their differences following a series of discussions.

Weeks after the issue was settled, Caisip said that Young again called him 
up and sought his help in finding Gan who was picked up by unidentified 
PDEA personnel.

Upon verification, Caisip said, he learned from directors of the PDEA Metro 
Manila Regional Office and the Special Enforcement Service that they were 
not the ones who arrested Gan.

Caisip later discovered that Gan had been picked up by Jaylo and his men 
for drug trafficking in Valenzuela City.

(To be continued)
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MAP posted-by: Beth