(Eagle News) — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday, March 28, questioned the timing and motive for dismissed Colonel Eduardo Acierto’s release of his alleged exposé on Michael Yang’s supposed drug links.
Speaking before the Kapihan sa Senado, Lacson said in the first place, Acierto could have said what he said he knew when he appeared before the Senate blue ribbon committee probing the shabu shipment allegedly seen in magnetic lifters last year.
Acierto has been in hiding since October last year, after he was linked to the shabu shipment.
He is facing charges in connection with the same.
“Nagtataka nga rin ako. Okay, nagtatago siya, pero ano motive niya in coming out and accusing President Rodrigo Duterte with a document (on the supposed exposé) that he already showed to several officials?” Lacson asked.
While Lacson could not say if Acierto’s motive was political, he noted that many of those calling for a probe into the dismissed police official’s allegations were members of the Liberal Party.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has said it previously conducted a probe of Yang but found no evidence to back up Acierto’s allegations.
President Rodrigo Duterte himself cleared the Chinese of any illegal drug links, and blasted Acierto, whom he described as corrupt.
Duterte noted Acierto’s involvement in the sale of AK-47 rifles to New People’s Army rebels, for which he was dismissed from the police service, and his alleged involvement in the killing South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo in 2016.
Acierto was the officer-in-charge of the now-defunct Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group, whose operatives were accused of abducting the businessman after falsely accusing him of being involved in illegal drug activities, and of killing him in Camp Crame.
PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde has said Acierto’s link to the killing was not established.
