Ochoa kicks out the wrong man at PDEA

I feel guilty over the relief of Carlos Gadapan as deputy director-general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

The sacking of Gadapan, I was told, had something to do with my item in this space about the wife of a high-ranking PDEA official who was a heavy gambler.

Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa thought I was referring to Gadapan’s wife, the former Malou Sanchez, daughter of the late Brig. Gen. Evaristo Sanchez.

I know Malou very well because she used to work for me at “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo.” She’s much too “Ilocana” to be a gambler.

So I texted Ochoa this message: “You sacked the wrong man at PDEA. It’s the DG’s wife who gambles heavily, not the wife of the guy you relieved. Mahina ang intel mo (You have a weak intelligence network).”

So, the cat is now out of the bag: It’s the wife of Director-General Jose S. Gutierrez—and not Gadapan’s—who is always seen at the casino, loses heavily and borrows big money from her husband’s subordinates and friends.

Here’s a piece of unsolicited advice to Ochoa: He should not sign papers relieving officials of their positions when he is not in a condition to do so.

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I was vacationing in my farm in Puerto Princesa Saturday when I received two unexpected visitors: Tagbanuas (Palawan natives) from a heavily forested and coastal sitios in the city’s Barangay Bacungan,

The visitors, Ricardo

Pandinio and Jomer Bucala, complained of the setting up of two Marine detachments in Sitios Tagkawayan and Simpacan when there is no insurgency problem there.

Pandinio, who is a tribal chief, and Bucala said the soldiers scared sitio residents because they sometimes fire their guns into the air and drive away people who get near two landholdings.

The landholdings, they said, belong to Marine Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban, chief of the Western Command, and Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian of Valenzuela, Metro Manila.