The Philippine National Police (PNP) has created tracker teams to arrest former police colonel Eduardo Acierto, an anti-narcotics veteran who tagged a foreign economic adviser of President Duterte as behind the smuggling of tons of shabu in the country last year.
PNP chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said the operation against Acierto is in connection with the arrest warrant issued by a Manila court for the intercepted multi-billion peso worth of drugs stuffed inside two magnetic lifters.
“We were able to secure copies of arrest warrant and we are now conducting manhunt operations,” said Albayalde.
“We are now monitoring all the places where he would go, we have tracker teams created by the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group),” he added.
Acierto is one of government officials charged in connection with the smuggling of shabu that were found inside two magnetic lifters in a warehouse in Cavite.
He was tagged by Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban as the one who sought his assistance for the entry of two shipments that contains shabu. He was placed under Witness Protection Program.
Acierto earlier came out from hiding to explain why he was being pinned down on the smuggling of shabu. He said it all started when he submitted intelligence reports that reached Malacanang about the involvement of Chinese Michael Yang in big-time drugs operations in the country.
Yang used to be Duterte’s adviser on economic matters.
Acierto said he was forced to hide since some groups have already offered millions of peso bounty for his death.
Albayalde said they will coordinate with the Bureau of Immigration to know if there are records showing that Acierto had already fled the country.
“But we believe that he is still here,” said Albayalde.
A member of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 1989, Acierto was dismissed from the service in August last year in connection with the registration of more than 1,000 AK-47 which allegedly end up at the hands of the communist rebels based in Mindanao. (Aaron Recuenco)
