Barbers: 'We won't make any judgment of Acierto's narrative'
At A Glance
- The House Committee on Dangerous Drugs will not make any judgment on the revelations made by dismissed Philippine National Police (PNP) Colonel Eduardo Acierto on the illegal drug situation in the country.
Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILABULLETIN)
The House Committee on Dangerous Drugs will not make any judgment on the revelations made by dismissed Philippine National Police (PNP) Colonel Eduardo Acierto on the illegal drug situation in the country.
Thus, said committee chairman, Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers in a statement Thursday, July 11
“The committee will not make any judgment on the narrative of Colonel Acierto. We just listened to it, vet it and will weigh its value when we craft the committee report," Barbers said.
A day earlier, the controversial Acierto participated via Zoom as a resource person in a hearing of the dangerous drugs panel.
In his presentation, he tagged former president Rodrigo Duterte and his allies--specifically his former special assistant and now Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, and then-PNP chief and now Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa--as protectors of the illegal drugs network in the country.
Acierto further claimed that Duterte had ordered the military and police to execute him because of what he knows.
Barbers clarified that Acierto was invited to Wednesday's hearing as an offshoot of the earlier findings that at least two corporations of which Michael Yang was an incorporator had links to the Empire 999 corporation.
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Empire 999 is listed as owner of the warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga where 560 kilogram of "shabu"--valued at P3.6 billion--were delivered upon the instructions of its “contacts”.
Yang is a former economic adviser of Duterte’s.
Barbers said that the committee had no prior knowledge of what Acierto would disclose. "In the spirit of fairness and due process, the committee allowed the appearance in order to get a full picture of the situation and may thus make a proper evaluation of its value," he said.
He said 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.
Acierto had figured prominently in 2017 during Duterte's Palace term when he named Yang as an alleged drug lord. This recollection prompted some House members to invite Acierto for the committee’s benefit.
"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," Barbers said.