THE House Committee on dangerous drugs yesterday ordered the arrest of Chinese businessman Michael Yang for his repeated failure to attend the panel’s hearing on the discovery of 560 kilos of shabu in a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga in September last year.
Yang, a former economic adviser of former President Rodrigo Duterte, was cited in contempt for ignoring the panel’s invitations and subsequent subpoena to force him to attend the hearings.
The panel has been summoning Yang to explain his link to an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Corp., which owns the warehouse where the 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.
The panel chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers 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, 2024.
With a quorum of 10 members present, which exceeds the two-thirds requirement, the committee voted to approve a motion by Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano to cite Yang in contempt.
“Citing the violation committed by Mr. Michael Yang under Section 11, Paragraph A, for refusing without legal excuse to obey summons and invitations, there is a motion to cite Mr. Michael Yang in contempt. The motion is duly seconded, and hearing no objection, the Committee is now citing Mr. Michael Yang in contempt,” Barbers said.
Barbers ordered the committee’s secretary to coordinate with the PNP, the House Sergeant-at-Arms, the National Bureau of Investigation, and other law enforcement agencies.
Yang was invited to answer questions in connection with the P3.6 billion drug bust by the NBI and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) after the committee found out that Empire 999 Realty Corp., the company that owns the warehouse where the drugs were found, appears to be owned by Chinese citizens who had been previously linked to anomalous activities under the past administration.
The panel earlier discovered that Yang’s interpreter, Linconn Ong, who was a controversial figure in the Pharmally scandal, is an incorporator of a company with links to other companies, including Empire 999, owned by a suspected Chinese drug lord Willie Ong whose real identity is believed is 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), then headed by then Undersecretary Christopher Lao, for the supply of medical needs during the pandemic under the Duterte administration. It was later revealed that the acquisition of supplies abroad was financed by Yang.
Yang had been identified by former anti-drug law enforcement officer Col. Eduardo Acierto and whistle-blower, self-confessed former Davao Death Squad (DDS) hitman Arturo Lascañas, as a drug kingpin.
During yesterday’s hearing, Acierto said he was set to identify Yang for involvement in illegal drugs as early as 2017 but he said then-President Rodrigo 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.
Acierto, a dismissed operative of the PNP-Drug Enforcement Group who has been in hiding since 2019, accused the former president and Dela Rosa of being protectors of illegal drugs.
“Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Bong Go, and Bato dela Rosa are protecting and are integral to the security of the illegal drugs network operating in the country,” Acierto said. “They allowed the entry of large volumes of illegal drugs through our ports and supported the syndicates by defending them, targeting those that go against them, and playing dumb to true justice.”
The former anti-drug operative told the Barbers panel that Duterte wanted him dead for investigating Yang and business partner Allan Lim for their alleged link to the illegal drugs trade.
