Word: pedro
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...Filipino officials had more loyal friends in high places than Pedro de la Pena, 36, one of the top agents in the Philippine army intelligence service, and few Manila businessmen were noisier defenders of free enterprise than his friend, Chinese-born Antonio Chua Cruz. Chua's Chinese-language weekly Free Asia was as noted in Manila for its bitter editorial attacks on Communism as Pedro was for the endless favors and help he gave those fighting the Red menace...
Dalliance & Debts. Pedro was probably not as rich as Millionaire Chua, but he had a certain gift_for piling up rewards for enterprise. An inveterate promoter, he quit high school in his sophomore year because he was already making more money than his teachers. During World War II he made even more money, buying war materials for the Japanese. It was characteristic of Pedro's suavity, however, that peace landed him not in a collaborator's jail but in a high job in the intelligence service...
Army officers working with Civilian Pedro in G-2 soon found him a ready source for loans. Those with a yen for dalliance discovered that his women friends were many and obliging. In time, the roster of Philippine officials indebted to Pedro de la Pena reached throughout army headquarters, the Senate and Manila's city hall. There was one official, however, whose acquaintance Pedro scrupulously avoided: Defense Secretary Ramon Magsaysay...
Last January, Magsaysay for the first time became aware of his high-living security agent, and promptly asked for his resignation. Army General Colixto Duque just as promptly reinstated Pedro. The Defense Secretary called the general on the carpet. Words flew hot and fast. "Anybody who can cause a rift between the general and me," said Magsaysay at last, "is a very dangerous person." And with that, he fired Pedro out of hand...
Fancies & Facts. Officers and officials high & low indignantly assured Magsaysay that Pedro was "a good man." Some threatened to resign, themselves, but the Defense Secretary held his ground. Then, last month, the U.S. Communist agitator William Pomeroy was captured (TIME, April 21). Among his papers, announced Magsaysay last week, were some interesting notes about De la Pena: Pedro was a secret Communist agent in the service of the Huks and Red China...