CHINESE businessman Michael Yang left the country for Dubai before the House of Representatives could serve the arrest warrant it issued against him for his repeated failure to attend the panel’s hearing on the discovery of 560 kilos of shabu in a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga last September.
“We were informed na ang (that the) subject ng (of the) arrest order ay wala na ho rito (is no longer here). ‘Yun (the) last information that we have, he is in Dubai,” Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chair of the House committee on dangerous drugs, told a press conference.
Yang, also known as Yang Hong Ming who served as an adviser to former President Rodrigo Duterte, was cited in contempt and ordered arrested by the dangerous drugs panel last July 10.
The panel summoned Yang after he was linked to an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Corp., which owns the warehouse in Mexico tow, where P3.6 billion worth of shabu was seized.
It was through the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) port that the illegal drugs entered the country before being transported to Barangay San Jose Malino in Mexico.
House Sergeant-at-Arms, retired Gen. Napoleon Taas and his team, have already served the arrest order at Fortun-Law Offices at 134 CRM Avenue, BF Homes Almanza, Las Piñas City after House Secretary General Reginald Velasco signed the contempt order.
Last May, Yang’s lawyer, lawyer Raymund Fortun, attended the hearing, saying his client was so busy that he had to leave the country eight times since October last year.
Barbers said his committee will coordinate with the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to alert other countries about the arrest order.
“Itong arrest order na ito (This arrest order), we will have to provide information to the Immigration and DFA so that the DFA and our Immigration can likewise alarm other countries about the arrest order na inisyu dito (issued here) sa (at the) House of Representatives,” he said.
“So that we will be able to track kung nasaan siya kasi maaaring lumipat-lipat na rin siya (where he is because he may have already left again). So kapag (if there’s) may (an) alarm, it will now provide us information kung saan nagta-travel ito (where he is traveling) because he will be using, definitely, his own passport.”
Barbers said Yang’s testimony is deemed crucial in unraveling the complex web of illegal drug smuggling activities linked to Empire 999.
In one of the previous hearings, former PNP Col. Eduardo Acierto identified Yang as the individual he had flagged in 2017 for involvement in illegal drugs.
Acierto, who formerly worked with the PNP’s Drug Enforcement Group, had claimed that former President Duterte, then-Special Adviser to the President and now Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, and then-PNP chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, ignored his intelligence report on Yang.
He has also accused the former president of wanting him killed due to his knowledge of Duterte’s links with Yang and other individuals involved in illegal drug activities.
The Barbers panel earlier discovered that Yang’s interpreter, Linconn Ong, a controversial figure in the Pharmally scandal, is an incorporator of a company with links to other companies, including Empire 999, owned by suspected Chinese drug lord Willie Ong, whose real identity is believed to be Cai Qimeng.
Pharmally was investigated after it cornered billions in contracts with the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM), headed by then Undersecretary Christopher Lao, for the supply of medical needs during the pandemic under the Duterte administration. It was later revealed that Yang financed the acquisition of supplies abroad.
