President Duterte has questioned the Senate blue ribbon committee on why it is listening to former policeman Eduardo Acierto in the alleged anomalous procurement of medical supplies when he has already been dismissed twice by the Office of the Ombudsman.
The President made this remark during a pre-recorded public address aired on Tuesday, September 14.
“I am surprised that one of the resource persons, ang tragedy niya (the tragedy is)—ang (the) tragedy is that you are listening to him. And I do not understand why the Senate is listening to a witness or the person of Acierto,” he said.
He noted that Acierto, the former Philippine National Police (PNP) Anti-Illegal Drugs Group chief who once said that the President and the PNP ignored an intelligence report on former Presidential adviser Michael Yang’s alleged drug links, was twice dismissed by the Ombudsman for his role in the anomalous PNP gun licensing deal and the alleged sale of AK-47 rifles to communist rebels.
“Ito ang masakit sa akin kaya ako rin galit talaga kay (This is what pains me that’s why I’m also mad at) Acierto, among others, dito ako naano 'yang napipika talaga (this is what pisses me off really),” Duterte said, adding that selling those rifles to communist rebels led to the deaths of his soldiers.
Acierto’s name was mentioned during the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing about Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp., after the senators asked if the person with Duterte and Yang in a photo was a certain Allan Lim, who the ex-cop previously involved in the drug trade.
READ: Yang quizzed on ties with alleged drug personality
In 2019, Acierto presented 2017 documents that showed the links between Yang, a Chinese businessman who Duterte repeatedly defended, and Lim, to illegal drugs.
He apparently showed the intelligence reports to the President, but said that the intel caught Duterte’s ire because Yang was a friend who is heavily involved in Davao’s businesses. The Chief Executive hailed from Davao.
In turn, Duterte accused Acierto of being involved in the P11-billion worth of smuggled drugs found inside magnetic lifters in 2018 even if the President previously claimed there were no drugs smuggled through the lifters.
On Tuesday, the President claimed that Acierto and former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) deputy chief Ismael Fajardo “have no credibility.” Like Acierto, Fajardo was accused of facilitating multibillion shabu shipments into the country.
“Gordon now is in a bind paano siya lalabas nito (how he will get out of this) because I will say it publicly, Gordon has forever lost his credibility in cahoots with criminals and fabricated stories,” Duterte said.
READ: Duterte tells Gordon: ‘I will campaign against you’
“You know, Senator, you’re a lawyer, you pretend to be—wala naman akong nakita nagtrial ka (I didn’t see you go to trial). You spend most of your time dun sa (in) Subic. Hindi ka na pinansin ni Ramos habol ka pa nang habol (Ramos didn’t mind you but you keep on trying to get his attention),” he added.
Gordon was chairman of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) during the term of former President Fidel V. Ramos.
“That’s the kind of person you are. You deserve the company of Acierto and Fajardo. and I’ll leave you at that,” he told the senator, who is leading the inquiries into the billions-worth of government contracts with Pharmally.
Gordon, who previously came to the Chief Executive’s defense on his bloody drug war campaign, earned the ire of the President in recent weeks.