EDITORIAL - Serious accusations

 As a presidential appointee, Carlos Gadapan served at the pleasure of the President and could be replaced any time. But Gadapan is claiming he was unjustly removed as deputy director general of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. And he has hurled serious accusations of corruption against PDEA chief Jose Gutierrez, including an alleged shakedown of a drug suspect for P8 million.

Gutierrez has denied the accusations. Malacañang has come to his defense, saying that Gadapan was fired for cause and the entire PDEA was under investigation. The administration should finish the probe as quickly as possible, because a blanket denial of Gadapan’s detailed accusations isn’t working to dispel the public’s tendency to believe the worst claims. The probe must be completed quickly also because another scandal at the PDEA can only be bad news for the campaign against drug trafficking.

It’s not the first time that accusations of wrongdoing have been hurled against PDEA officials and personnel. The agency has been accused in the past of shakedowns, protection rackets and frame-ups. People have wondered why raids on shabu laboratories rarely lead to the arrest of the operators or masterminds. The anomalies have derailed the anti-drug campaign and have surely contributed to the continuing use of the country as a shabu manufacturing base and transshipment point for international drug trafficking.

Gadapan presented documents purportedly showing that the wife of Gutierrez liked gambling in casinos and incurred large amounts of debt. Gadapan said he told the PDEA chief about the gambling, and suspects that because of this, Gutierrez asked the President to relieve him.

Malacañang has said only that the President does not act on a whim in replacing officials. The whole story will be bared to the public, according to Palace officials. The sooner this happens, the better for the anti-drug campaign, and the easier it will be for the public to believe that the administration is not just doing damage control.