2 arrested for extort try on noted architect

Agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested a former driver of a noted architectural firm and his brother-in-law in Pampanga last Friday for attempting to extort money from the company’s managing partner.

The entrapment of suspects Carlos de Guzman, 39, and his brother-in-law Francisco Laureano, 32, stemmed from the complaint of architect Felino Palafox Jr., founder and managing partner of Palafox and Associates, that the two were extorting P100,000 from him.

Palafox told NBI investigators that De Guzman and Laureano had threatened to kill him and his family should he fail to give the money, thus prompting him to seek the help of the law enforcement agency.

Last June 1, Palafox reportedly got a phone call from Laureano, who accused him of allegedly mistreating De Guzman, who used to be a driver of Palafox and Associates.

Laureano threatened to report the matter to the New People’s Army.

He and De Guzman later sent a slew of text messages to Palafox reiterating their demand for money, instructing the architect to send the money through door-to-door delivery service to their house.

Palafox was able to convince the two suspects to set the payoff last Friday in a fastfood outlet at a shopping mall in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga, with his driver, Jose Diapana, delivering the money.

But without the suspects’ knowledge, NBI senior agent Glenn Ricarte and special investigator Isaac Carpeso and their men had been at the mall hours before the payoff.

Vicente de Guzman, chief of the NBI Special Action Unit, said the suspects called up Diapana and instructed him to proceed to the mall’s parking lot where they were eventually arrested.

The STAR learned that Carlos de Guzman voluntarily resigned from Palafox and Associates in September 2001 yet when the executive he was working for left the company.