No PDEA standoff: Oh yeah?

Despite the denial by Derrick Arnold Carreon, chief of the public information office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), a near shootout took place inside the office of the PDEA chief, Director General Jose Gutierrez.

I stand by my report in this column of October 6 that nine PDEA agents confronted Gutierrez and Zoilo Lachica, chief of the agency’s intelligence and investigation division, over the punishment meted out on the agents by their big boss.

My PDEA sources insist the confrontation took place.

Gutierrez and Lachica, my sources said, called members of special enforcement service (SES), PDEA’s version of the police’s SWAT unit after they were confronted by the nine agents.

The SES members went to Gutierrez’s office and soon thereafter, the cocking of guns was heard by other PDEA employees.

My mistake was saying that the SES members carried M-16 rifles instead of Tavor, Israeli-made assault rifles.

Since my sources said SES troopers carried “mahahaba” (long guns), I assumed the guns were M-16s.

“What really happened that time was, agents from the Special Enforcement Service were scheduled to escort and secure the Director General, who was going to the Department of Justice for a meeting,” said Carreon, in a letter published in the Opinion section of this paper Saturday.

But why would the SES troopers rush to the office of the Director General, cock their guns, and then escort the nine agents out of Gutierrez’s office?

The answer is obvious: There was a heated argument between Gutierrez and Lachica, on one hand, and the nine agents, on the other hand, over why the latter were punished when they allegedly gave Gutierrez and Lachica P2 million and P1 million, respectively, as their share of the P8 million that was allegedly extorted from a suspected Chinese drug trafficker.

The PDEA does not deny the P8-million payoff.

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Are posts and columns in a condominium unit included in the purchased space?

The St. Francis Square Development Corp., owner of the posh BSA Twin Towers in Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City, allegedly included posts and columns in the space the owners bought.

Businessman Richard King, who earlier complained to this writer about not being allowed to add a mezzanine floor to his unit by the BSA Twin Towers developer, now complains that the post inside his unit was included in the space that was bought.

The post occupies three square meters, or about three percent of the 37 square meters of his unit, said King.

King’s unit cost P18 million, or about P486,000 per square meter.

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My friend Pompeyo “Peyo” Pineda and his cancer-stricken wife, Susie, have complained that debris and even human feces land on the roof of their house from the Wil Tower now under construction in Quezon City.

Peyo says he has complained to the contractor, Metro Stonerich Corp., to no avail.

I’m sure that when well-known TV host Willie Revillame, who owns the condominium under construction, reads this he will berate the contractor.