QUEZON City – Former police colonel Eduardo Acierto testified before the quad com in Congress that former President Rodrigo Duterte received money from close pals Michael Yang and Allan Lim in exchange for protection that he extended, a practice that started in Davao City and continued when he assumed office in Malacañang.
Acierto said Duterte and his aide now Sen. Bong Go protected Yang and Lim by ignoring his official report detailing the latter’s illegal drug activities, and later on by connecting him to drug smuggling activities and causing the filing of charges in court so that prize money could be announced on his arrest.
Acierto used to be a highly placed police operative assigned to taskforces and special units within the Philippine National Police.
Go has denied involvement in illegal drugs.
Responding to questions posed by Cong. Jinky Luistro, Acierto said his remark that “pumatong si Duterte kay Michael Yang” meant that Duterte profited from illegal drug operations by clearing and coddling operators like Yang.
Acierto alluded to an intel report that he submitted to former police chiefs Ronald ‘Bato’ Dela Rosa and Oscar Albayalde, which contained the names of Yang, Lim, and one Johnson Chua who were photographed on various occasions in the company of Sen. Go and the former President. The former chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Aaron Aquino also did not act on the report.
Acierto also testified that while now senator Dela Rosa did not act on his report, he knows that he knew of its existence because he asked his underling Gen. Camilo Cascolan to get a copy from him and eventually talking to Alan Lim about it.
Acierto also mentioned that Duterte asked publicly why he was still alive in a speech delivered in General Santos City after he went into hiding fearing for his life.
Left to fight alone
Acierto also relayed to the Quad Com that Sgt. Gerry Liwanag, a member of his team, was gunned down in Bulacan, while Capt. Lito Perote, another member of his team, was abducted in Bacolod City in April 2019 and can no longer be located.
The hearing took an emotional turn when former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban greeted Acierto online, thankful that they are still alive to expose the criminal wrongdoing of the previous administration.
Acierto and Guban had coordinated in the apprehension of magnetic lifters that went through the gates of the Bureau of Customs said to contain contraband drugs in 2018.
Guban previously named Davao City councilor Nilo “Small” Abellera Jr. as the conduit for Yang, Polong Duterte, and Mans Carpio, otherwise known as the Davao Group, who wanted the Customs intelligence section to turn a blind eye to their shipments that mostly contained “palaman,” slang for illegal drug shipments disguised as importations of agricultural products like sugar, rice and vegetables.
Polong Duterte and Mans Carpio have long denied involvement in illegal drugs.
Guban had also narrated that between the months of May and June 2018 Acierto shared an intelligence report about a forthcoming shipment of illegal drugs consigned to Vecaba Trading owned by Vedasto Cabral Baraquel, Jr. and his live-in partner Maria Lagrimas A. Catipan. They are alleged dummies of Calapan-based importer Poney Chen.
Guban says these persons can no longer be found despite repeated entreaties to the National Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies.
Debt of gratitude
Former PDEA director Wilkins Villanueva admitted to clearing Yang in 2020, adverting to clearances from other law enforcement agencies. He said he did not have evidence against Michael Yang.
Cong. Jay Konghun said Villanueva cleared Michael Yang because Duterte appointed him director general of PDEA./PN
