Trader doubts Acierto’s credibility

Businesswoman Rose Nono Lin on Saturday doubted the credibility of dismissed Police Colonel Eduardo Acierto as a credible witness in the ongoing investigation of the House Quad Committee on the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

Lin noted that Acierto, who was a former member of the PNP Anti-Narcotics Unit, was implicated in the P11-billion worth of smuggled drugs concealed in magnetic lifters found at the Manila International Container Port and in a warehouse in Cavite in 2018, and a P10 million bounty on his head.

The ex-police officer was also among those charged in the illegal sale of more than 1,000 high-powered firearms worth P52 million to communist insurgents during the Aquino administration, and also allegedly involved in kidnapping, including that of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-Joo, who was found dead on 18 October 2016 inside  Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine National Police.

Lin raised the issue after Acierto alleged that her businessman husband Lin Wei Xiong, a  Hong Kong national, and drug personality Allan Lim are the same person.

Acierto submitted the said report in 2019 to then-Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde and then Philippine Drugs Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron Aquino. 

In the said report, Acierte claimed that he discovered through an informant the connection of former Duterte adviser Michael Yang and Allan Lim, who is also known as Lin Wei Xiong into the drug trade.

Former PDEA chief Wilking Villanueva earlier told members of the House Quadcom Comittee that Acierto’s report was “raw” or unverified, adding that there was no proof that the subjects were linked to the illegal drug trade.

Acierto claimed that his report was never acted upon because then-President Duterte was allegedly protecting Yang and Lim.

“If Acierto is really telling the truth, why doesn’t he come out and face the cases against him?” Lin asked.

She also pointed out that, unlike Acierto, her husband is not the subject of any warrant of arrest nor the subject of a pending case in court.

“Acierto should man up. Face the music if you are really clean,” she added.