DOJ creates task force to probe drug war-related EJKs
Former police Col. Eduardo Acierto on Thursday claimed former president Rodrigo Duterte was a “protector” of his former economic adviser and suspected drug lord Michael Yang despite waging a war on drugs that left thousands of people dead during his administration.
Acierto also accused Duterte and Senator Bong Go of putting a P50 million bounty on his head after he linked ex-presidential adviser Michael Yang to the illegal drug trade.
“This is due to my report discovering their connection with Michael Yang and Allan Lim, who is also known as Lin Weixiong,” he said.
For his part, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla created a task force to give fair and equitable justice to alleged victims of extrajudicial killings committed by state forces during Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
“Spare no one — hold accountable every personality who had a hand in the senseless killing perpetrated by abusive persons in authority during the past admin’s anti-illegal drug campaign,” Remulla said.
The task force will be chaired by a senior assistant state prosecutor and co-chaired by a regional prosecutor with nine members from the National Prosecution Service (NPS).
Remulla said the task force is mandated to probe, conduct case build-up and file necessary charges, if warranted against the perpetrators as well as those involved in the EJKs during the previous administration’s anti-illegal drug campaign.
The task force is also mandated to closely coordinate and assist the House Quad Committee and the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in their respective investigations into the war on drugs.
At the House, Acierto reiterated his earlier accusation that Duterte protected his alleged drug lord friend, which was also included in his 2017 confidential report.
“I am certain because of what happened to my people, Duterte protected Michael Yang and Allan Lim,” he said during yesterday’s Quad Committee hearing.
Acierto was referring to his subordinates — police Capt. Lito Perote and MSgt. Gerry Liwanag, with the former still missing after being abducted by armed men in Bacolod City in April 2019, while the latter was shot dead by unidentified assailants in San Jose del Monte City in February 2021.
In his 2017 report, Acierto said Yang had operated drug laboratories in Mindanao since the early 2000s. These include a shabu manufacturing hub in Davao City that was raided by authorities in December 2004, yielding over 100 kilos of high-grade shabu with a street value exceeding P300 million.
Acierto’s team then prepared a drug matrix showing that Yang is a member of the Johnson Chua drug syndicate led by a certain Johnson Co, who is based in mainland China.
He said the matrix was among the reports he submitted to then-PNP chief and now Senator Ronald Dela Rosa, former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director Aaron Aquino, and Police Deputy Director General Camilo Cascolan.
Acierto said he also provided the report to Dela Rosa’s successor, former PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde.
“They did not do anything. They let the report go to waste…It got to the point where the report could not be disputed, so it was my team and I who were maligned,” Acierto said.
“I submitted the report to Dela Rosa, who did not act on it. Instead, it was Allan Lim whom he talked to,” he added, recalling that he was accused by Duterte in October 2018 of being one of the police officials allegedly linked to illegal drugs.
For his part, Quad Comm co-chairman and Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano questioned Duterte’s absence from the hearing.
“We are fooling each other here because in his first letter, he promised us that he will be present after November 1. If we are not fooling each other here, what, is he afraid to come here?” Paduano said.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Ex-cop Acierto accuses Duterte of protecting Michael Yang who has ‘drug links’”
