House panel eyes ‘missing link’ between Yang, drug lord

MANILA, Philippines —  The dangerous drugs committee of the House of Representatives is in the process of finding the so-called “missing link” between two alleged drug dealers during the six-year term of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

Panel chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said they allowed the testimony of dismissed police colonel Eduardo Acierto in their July 10 hearing if only to assess whether this is linked to the case of Duterte’s economic adviser and businessman Michael Yang, a suspected drug trafficker.

“The committee will not make any judgment on the narrative of Acierto. We just listen to it, vet it and will weigh its value when we craft the committee report,” said the second district congressman from Surigao del Norte.

The Barbers panel on Wednesday cited Yang in contempt and ordered his arrest for repeatedly failing to appear before the committee to address his alleged involvement in a P3.6-billion drug bust in Mexico, Pampanga in March 2023.

Yang was linked to an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Corp., which owns the warehouse in Mexico (Pampanga) where the illegal substance shabu weighing about 560 kilos, was seized by anti-narcotics agents.

The House committee also imposed a 30-day detention at the Bicutan jail in Taguig City on Yang, whose last recorded travel was from Manila to Dubai on May 12.

The committee is trying to establish the links between and among corporations found to have interlocking incorporators, with the company of Chinese national Willie Ong, Empire 999, which owned the warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga where shabu was ordered delivered last year.

When Yang’s name surfaced, Acierto’s name also cropped up as the latter had figured prominently in 2017 in the illegal drug controversy when he named Yang as an alleged drug lord.

This recollection prompted some panel members to invite Acierto to shed light on the case.

“Should the committee find any link between and among the incorporators of these various corporations, the apt recommendations will be endorsed to the proper government agencies, through its committee report,” a statement from Barbers’ office read.

Yang was invited to the House hearing after Lincoln Ong, a Pharmally official and an alleged associate of Yang, was found to be an incorporator of a company with links to Empire 999 and other firms.

According to Barbers, Yang’s testimony is deemed crucial in unraveling the complex web of illegal drug smuggling activities linked to Empire 999.

Acierto, a dismissed colonel who formerly worked with the Philippine National Police’s drug enforcement group, claimed that Duterte, then special adviser to the president Bong Go and then PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa – now both senators – ignored his intelligence report on Yang.