The Philippine government is now offering a PHP10 million (US$191,880.92) reward for the arrest of controversial former police officer Eduardo Acierto.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed today that the bounty is being offered by the Presidential Palace Malacañang, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported. Guevarra, however, said he was not privy to where the money will be sourced, GMA News reported.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) also planned to offer a bounty but said today that the Palace’s offer is enough, Rappler reported.
According to Guevarra, the DOJ will instead focus on finding Acierto’s alleged coddlers and protectors.
On Wednesday, a Manila court made public its arrest warrant against Acierto and several other personalities for allegedly masterminding the smuggling of billions of pesos worth of shabu (meth) into the Philippines through magnetic lifters in 2018.
Aside from Acierto, the court also ordered the arrest of former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) Deputy Chief Ismael Fajardo, Jr. and former Bureau of Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban.
In August last year, two magnetic lifters which contained meth worth PHP2.4 billion (US$45.950 million) were discovered at the Port of Manila. A few days later, authorities found four similar-looking lifters at a Cavite warehouse which were empty but are believed to have been used to smuggle meth worth PHP11 billion (US$211.078 million).
Guban said at a Senate hearing in October that it was Acierto who allegedly masterminded the release of all the lifters from the port. Acierto allegedly asked for his help to pull out the lifters from the Manila port and move them to Cavite, another Rappler report said.
Acierto went into hiding after the allegations were made against him. He denies having drug links and has accused the government of setting him up. He later revealed himself to select media in March to accuse Duterte’s former advisor Michael Yang of having alleged links to the illegal drug trade.
Duterte denied the allegation, saying that the public shouldn’t believe Acierto’s accusations and that the former cop was just being used by the opposition Liberal Party.
