Duterte hits Gordon for using testimonies of 'perjured witness' Acierto

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday criticized Senator Richard Gordon anew, this time for using documents and testimonies from dismissed Police Colonel Eduardo Acierto, who he called a perjured witness.

In a taped address aired on Thursday, Duterte questioned Gordon, head of the Senate blue ribbon committee, for presenting information from Acierto during the committee’s investigation into the alleged overpriced pandemic supplies .

“Diyan hindi ko mainitindihan kung bakit ganun si Gordon, using perjured witness [I don’t understand why Gordon is using a perjured witness],” he said.

Acierto was the subject of a blue ribbon investigation in 2019 about the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) reports on magnetic lifters containing shabu worth P11 billion.

“Senator Gordon, it is a crime when you present a perjured witness in official proceedings in Congress or in government,” he added.

For Duterte, Acierto has no credibility, accusing him of being behind the importation of AK-47 rifles that were allegedly given to the New People’s Army.

He added that Acierto was allegedly involved in kidnap-for-ransom schemes against Chinese businessmen.

Acierto was the policeman who linked Chinese businessman Michael Yang, Duterte's former economics adviser, to the illegal drug trade.

Senators conducting the probe are establishing Yang's link to Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corporation, the small and relatively new company that bagged over P8 billion worth of procurement deals with the government.

Senators have cited Yang in contempt and moved for his arrest, together with officials of Pharmally, for allegedly being evasive during the hearings. —KBK, GMA News