Cop evading quad comm after ‘demolition job’ – solons

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TWO co-chairmen of the House quad committee yesterday lambasted Police Col. Hector Grijaldo for allegedly running away instead of facing the joint panel and explaining why he told a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee a month ago that he was forced to confirm the testimonies of former senior police officers that there was a reward system for cops who killed drug suspects under the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.

“Now he’s running away,” Sta. Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez told the 12th hearing of the quad committee, which is led by its overall chair Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Barbers, after Grijaldo again skipped the hearing yesterday.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., for his part, said: “This is already the third time that he failed to respond to our invitation, citing the same medical reason. I think he is trying to hide. You can hide but you cannot run from this committee.”

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“He must appear before us again. Tell us about his accusation,” said Abante, who chairs the House Committee on Human Rights, one of the five committees composing the quad comm.

Fernandez, who earlier said the allegations could be a demolition job aimed at attacking him and Abante to discredit the whole quad panel and its proceedings, said the police colonel’s excuses were “not acceptable.”

Fernandez, chair of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety, said the police colonel’s excuses were “not acceptable.” “He is trying to run away from his responsibility. He wants to evade this inquiry. Ayaw niyang panindigan yung sinabi niya sa Senado (He does not want to explain what he said in the Senate),” he said.

In his letter to the committee, Grijado said that he was not available to attend the hearing because he has been in the hospital undergoing treatment for “rotator cuff syndrome.”

On motion of Barbers and another co-chair, Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano (PL, Abang Lingkod), the joint committee directed the House physician to check on Grijaldo’s medical condition to ascertain if he is really incapable of attending the hearings.

Grijaldo, a member of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, told senators last October 28 that Fernandez allegedly ordered him to confirm the drug war reward system during a private meeting before one of the hearings of the quad committee.

Bukidnon Rep. Keith Flores proposed that the medical office of the PNP assess if the police colonel “is still fit to remain in service,” saying that Grijaldo could apply for retirement on the basis of permanent physical disability.

The two lawyers of Garma, who were supposedly present during the meeting between Abante, Fernandez and Grijaldo, have already denied Grijaldo’s allegations, which Fernadez said happened after he mentioned the name of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa’s son during the October 22 hearing of the quad committee, during which, he quizzed police Lt. Col. Bryan Andulan about his alleged involvement in the assassination of Los Baños, Laguna mayor Caesar Perez.

The lawmaker asked Andulan what his relationship with Dela Rosa was and when the police officer told him that he was assigned to the Philippine National Police Academy, Fernandez surmised that it connects Andulan to Dela Rosa because the senator’s son was a plebe at the PNPA at the time.

PDEA MATRIX

A matrix presented by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) to the joint committee linked Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go’s to alleged drug personality Allan Lin alias Lin Weixiong.

The matrix, presented by Deputy Director for Operations Assistant Secretary Renato Gumban, showed the supposed network of criminal activities linking Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to drug syndicates and corporate fraud.

It was meant to show how transnational syndicates exploit legal loopholes and corporate structures to facilitate drug trafficking, money laundering, and land-grabbing by foreigners, particularly Chinese citizens.

“According to this informant, Allan Lin is a close friend of then special assistant to the president, Christopher Bong Go,” Gumban told the committee.“

Allan Lin is a casino junket operator who is believed to be involved in the kidnapping of high roller Chinese gamblers in Okada Manila. Lin, or Weixiong Lin, was also supposedly involved in a case involving illegal drugs, but this case was dismissed in 2015.

Former anti-drug operative Police Col. Eduardo Acierto has been claiming before the quad panel that former President Rodrigo Duterte was the “protector” of suspected drug lords like former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang and Lin, husband of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation incorporator Rose Nono Lin who is running for a congressional seat in Quezon City.

“Rose Nono Lin and Michael Yang are also co-incorporators of a certain Allan Lin in Paili Holdings Incorporation. Allan Lin is the husband of Rose Nono Lin,” said Gumban, adding that the investigation also showed Yang’s connections to the Lin couple.

In 2017, Acierto and his team compiled an intelligence report detailing the alleged involvement of Yang, who once served as Duterte’s economic adviser, and Lin in the illegal drug trade.

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Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT), however, later reprimanded the PDEA after Gumban could not pinpoint Go’s direct involvement in illegal drugs and clarify his connections to Lin.

Gumban said PDEA was only able to verify Lin’s links to the drug trade and that the agency is still investigating the link between him and Go, who was Duterte’s former special assistant before he was elected senator.

“Ma’am, Allan Lin is directly involved in illegal drugs but up to now we cannot connect Michael Yang yet in this link diagram,” Gumban told Castro. “What we have now is just Michael Yang and Allan Lin are the same incorporators, so we are still digging into the accounts of Michael Yang, and that is for the AMLC (Anti-Money Laundering Council) to determine.”

When Castro asked why the matrix shows an arrow between Lin and Go, Gumban said: “Ma’am according to our informant, they are just close friends, so we just put it there, they are close friends. It is not specific that they are involved in drugs. We are still digging what we can have against these people, it is not yet complete, ma’am, it is ongoing.”

Gumban said Go should be the one to explain “not us because we’re still investigating.” He admitted that PDEA does not have “concrete proof” of what the two’s transactions are.

This prompted Castro to say: “Sorry, Asec. Gumban. Do not create a matrix that is incriminating and that would connect people with a title saying POGO and drugs connection. Complete your investigation first.”

Barbers also called out PDEA to be more “circumspect” before including someone’s name in the matrix.

“May I ask the PDEA that when you submit to the committee a matrix, please make sure that the information that you have gathered is enough and sufficient to be able to prove your poin t,” he said.

Gumban said the criminal activities were first traced to a joint operation on September 24, 2023, with the seizure of 560 kilograms of shabu valued at P3.6 billion in Mexico, Pampanga.

The operation, conducted by PDEA, the NBI, the Bureau of Customs, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency eventually discovered the drugs in a warehouse owned by Willie Ong, also known as Cai Qimeng, an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Inc., which acquired the land for the warehouse with alleged assistance from dismissed Mexico Mayor Teddy Tumang.

Further investigation showed that Ong and Empire 999 Realty Inc. were part of a larger network of interconnected companies engaged in illicit activities such as Golden Sun 999 Realty and Development Corporation and Yatai Industrial Park Inc., both linked to Ong and Aedy T. Yang, another incorporator.

Golden Sun 999 was also found to be tied to Rose Nono Lin, who is also with Pharmally, the company that secured P11 billion in government contracts despite a declared capital of only P625,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic under Duterte.

CONTEMPT

The panel cited Tumang in contempt and ordered him detained at the Batasang Pambasa after he drew the ire of Paduano for allegedly lying and evading questions about the warehouse in Mexico where the shabu was found last year.

It was the second time in about a year that the former town mayor was cited in contempt. The first one was in last November year by the committee on dangerous drugs.

Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro was trying to establish the links between the P3.6 billion worth of shabu worth more than P3 billion seized by the authorities in a warehouse in Barangay San Jose Malino in Mexico in September 2023 and the acquisition by Chinese nationals of “320 landholdings” in that town.

She said the Chinese nationals, including Aedy Ty Yang and Willy Ong, were the incorporators, together with other Chinese, of Empire 999, the realty firm that owned the warehouse in Barangay San Jose Malino.

Luistro said it was clear that illegal drug money was used to buy large tracts of lands in Mexico, with the Chinese nationals using bogus birth certificates showing they are Filipinos.

Tumang initially denied personally knowing Yang and Ong, adding that he only met the two when they came to his office to buy land in his town which he said did not mean that he “personally” knew them.

This irked Paduano who said the former mayor was lying, adding that he has evidence that Tumang personally knew Aedy Yang and “in fact, you travelled together to Fujian in China.”

The former mayor, who pleaded that the committee give him time to explain after Paduano moved that he be cited in contempt, eventually admitted that he and other Mexico town officials travelled to China with Yang.

“So you are lying, you are evasive. I am sorry to say this, bulok na yung style mo (your style is rotten). Sa committee ko pa lang at sa Committee on Dangerous Drugs, kabisado ka na namin (We knew you from my committee and the Committee on Dangerous Drugs),” Paduano told Tumang.

LAND ACQUISITIONS

The panel found that Empire 999 Realty Inc. exploited its connections to local officials to acquire vast landholdings and expand its illicit operations.

“Mayor Tumang knowingly supported the illegal acquisition of land by Aedy T. Yang and Willie Ong under Empire 999 in Mexico, Pampanga,” Luistro said, who pointed out that Tumang was already acquainted with the two Chinese citizens before his 2017 trip to Fujian, China, with Yang.

“At least we can consider [Mayor Tumang] a person of interest with respect to the violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act,” Luistro added.

Lawmakers were able to uncover that nine land titles in Mexico, Pampanga, were transferred to Empire 999 under suspicious circumstances, including one previously owned by Tumang’s brother, Architect Alex Tumang.

Barbers said the joint panel has seen “how the money flow from this drug trade is being used to acquire landholdings, influence, and corrupt government officials and employees who conspire with the drug traders in offering protection and fake identities, that undermine the security of our country.”

The committee connected Empire 999’s land acquisitions to violations of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

Luistro called out the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), saying it should have acted since Empire 99 was misrepresented as a Filipino corporation to acquire properties reserved exclusively for Filipino nationals, potentially breaching the Securities Regulation Code (SRC), the Philippine Corporation Code, and RA 9160.

AMLC representative Adrian Arpon said the violations pertain to the Corporation Code rather than the SRC, but Luistro insisted that the illegal incorporation and its subsequent activities tied to investments fall under the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“It entails violations not only of the Philippine Corporation Code but also the Securities Regulation Code,” she said. “I do not understand why AMLC, instead of finding ways to use this beautiful and responsive law, is rejecting the possibility of using it to secure the assets of these persons of interest.”

CHARGE ONG

Ruth D. Polinag, president of DISKARTENG PINOY Cebu City Chapter, urged the Office of the Solicitor General to file civil forfeiture, reversion, escheat, cancellation of birth certificates, deportation and other criminal and administrative complaints against Chinese citizens Aedy Yang and Willie Ong, saying the quad commitee “has already gathered sufficient evidence that government prosecutors can use to file criminal cases against various personalities and entities.”

Polinag said the joint panel can provide certified transcripts of its hearings and copies of the affidavits of resource persons if requested by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of the Ombudsman, and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG).

“There are plenty of evidence, both testimonial and evidentiary, that the quad comm has gathered that government prosecutors can use to file cases against various personalities and entities,” she said in a statement.

Polinag said the joint panel also has also secured evidence that would warrant the filing of graft, smuggling, and trafficking cases against former Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corporation (Phividec) administrators Leo Tereso Magno, Franklin Quijano and Jose Gabrielle La Viña.

Magno is the current secretary of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Eastern Mindanao (Opamine) and chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).

Polinag said the SEC documents submitted to the panel also mentioned Noe Taojo, president of Golden Sun Cargo, and officers Cherlyn Uy, Josue Tesado Sr., Ramon Edison Batacan, and Socorro Ermac Cabreros.

The House panels have determined that the former Phividec officials were complicit in the illegal activities of Golden Sun Cargo Examination Services Inc., Sanjia Steel and Yangtze Rice Mill, all owned by Yang J ian Xin, a Chinese national, whose Filipino name is Antonio Maestrado Lim and Tony Yang, elder brother of Michael Yang.

Polinag also said the testimonies made during the hearings “are the key evidence that would pin down the masterminds behind the killing of Wesley Barayuga.”

The 2020 killing of retired police Gen. Wesley Barayuga, then a PCSO board secretary, was allegedly the brainchild of Garma and Leonardo, according to Police Lt. Col. Santie Mendoza who had claimed that Garma ordered Barayuga’s assassination in exchange for P300,000, a claim corroborated by retired Police Cpl. Nelson Mariano, who admitted to recruiting the hitman, a certain “Loloy.”

The quad committee hearings have revealed that the motive centered around disagreements between Garma – who was known to be close to the former president – and Barayuga in “Peryahan ng Bayan” franchise allocations and the issuance of board certificates for Small Town Lottery (STL) franchises, which he reportedly refused to sign without full board approval.

“The role of the joint panel in finally closing the case and getting justice for his family has been very crucial,” Polinag said. “The quad committee has been a critical partner of our law enforcement agencies and government prosecuting offices in digging up valuable information about crimes that proliferated during the previous administration. The hearings have unearthed pieces of evidence that even the PNP and the DOJ failed to find.”

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