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) - --- MAP posted-by: Beth