President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday evening told the public not to believe the claim of dismissed Sr. Supt. Eduardo Acierto linking Chinese businessman Michael Yang to the illegal drug trade, and asked the police why the former cop was still alive.
“Do not believe it, especially this Acierto. F*** it,” Duterte said in a speech during the distribution of financial grants in Koronadal City, South Cotabato. “I should ask the military and police, why is that son of a b**** still alive?”
The President’s remarks came after Acierto, who went into hiding for his alleged involvement in the smuggling in of P11 billion worth of shabu, resurfaced to show documents detailing supposed links between Yang, Duterte’s former economic adviser, and another Chinese national, Allan Lim, with the illegal drug trade.
The President said Acierto was sacked since August 2018 due to the procurement of AK-47 rifles, which eventually landed in the possession of the communist New People’s Army.
“This Acierto, he was the broker of AK-47, about 1,000 pieces. He imported [them] and gave [them] to the NPA,” Duterte said.
“I ask the military and police, why is he still alive? You don’t want to kill him? Then tell me,” the President said.
On Sunday evening, Acierto, former deputy director for administration of the Philippine National Police Drug Enforcement Group, accused the President and the PNP of ignoring an intelligence report and blocking an investigation into Yang’s alleged drug links.
The Palace, however, maintained that Acierto was merely “pointing fingers at whoever” he wants “to get back” at the PNP.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said if Acierto’s report were true, the President would “go to the ends of the earth” to put him behind bars “or worse.”
Duterte said he has known Yang, a Chinese businessman, for a long time.
“I know that Michael Yang for a long time. [Since] 1989 or ‘99, he already had businesses such as phones, appliances, everything. Just in small stores,” Duterte said, recalling that he even told Yang to do “legal business” or he will bury him alive.
In August 2018, Acierto and other police officials were sacked for multiple counts of graft in connection with the missing AK-47 assault rifles, which allegedly ended up in the hands of communist rebels in Mindanao.
Two months after, Duterte declassified a “drug matrix” tagging Acierto and several law enforcement officials for their connections to various narcotics financiers and manufacturers inside and outside the country.
Duterte also linked Acierto to the killing of a Korean businessman in Camp Crame.
Duterte said Acierto and another police official, Ismael Fajardo, were involved in a series of extortion and other illegal activities.
“That Korean who was killed in Camp Crame, Acierto and Fajardo, they were the ones who killed that Korean,” Duterte said.
The Chief Executive came to the defense of his former economic adviser, saying high-ranking Chinese officials, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi, had vouched for him.
Despite Duterte’s vigorous defense of Yang, PNP chief Oscar Albayalde said he had no problem with investigating Acierto’s allegations.
At present, Albayalde said they have no information linking Yang in any illegal activity.
“The President did not stop us or did not tell us to stop our validation,” Albayalde said.
To determine the veracity of Acierto’s claims, Albayalde said they would start a probe on the allegations that Yang was allegedly behind the shabu laboratories that were dismantled in Davao City and Cagayan de Oro City.
In an interview on the ANC news channel, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo suggested that Acierto may have had the wrong Michael Yang.
“It appears now that this Michael Yang is different from the Michael Yang [that Acierto is talking about],” Panelo said.