FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, that he would kill his former economic adviser Michael Yang if there was evidence to prove his links to the illegal drug trade.
Duterte, during his attendance at the House quad committee hearing on Wednesday, said that no evidence had been presented to him regarding Yang's involvement in the drug trade, and that if there were any proof, he would take matters into his own hands.
“Michael Yang has not been arrested. Wala naman pinapakita sa akin (na evidence). Kung meron, ako na ang pumatay. Hindi na kailangan ng pulis, ako na mismo,” Duterte said.
(Michael Yang has not been arrested. No evidence has been shown to me. If there is any, I would kill him myself. The police wouldn’t be needed. I would handle it myself.)
“Hindi talaga involved yan. Magtanong ka sa pulis ngayon. Gusto mo magsama tayo sa Nica (National Intelligence Coordinating Agency), NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) kung may makasabi sa iyo isang ahente na involve yan. Yan lang ang suspetsa nila kasi pagka-Intsik,” he added.
(He’s really not involved. Ask the police now. If you want, we can go to Nica or NBI, and if any agent tells you that he’s involved, then we’ll consider it. That’s just their suspicion because he’s Chinese.)
Yang, a businessman based in Davao, has long been in hot water over his implication in various issues, such as the alleged corruption surrounding the procurement of overpriced medical supplies at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, as well as in illegal Pogo operations in the country.
His older brother, Yang Jianxin, also known as Tony Yang, was arrested in September by the Bureau of Immigration over a deportation case for “undesirability and misrepresentation.”
Tony, whose businesses are based in Cagayan de Oro, faced a Senate inquiry into illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos), during which he denied any links to offshore gaming firms.
During the committee’s hearing in Pampanga on August 16, former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban linked Duterte’s son-in-law, lawyer Mans Carpio, his son, Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte, and Yang to the P11 billion worth of illegal drug shipments that slipped into the country in 2018. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)