House orders arrest of Michael Yang

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives ordered the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s adviser for economic affairs Michael Yang after he repeatedly refused to comply with summons to shed light on his alleged involvement in a P3.6-billion drug bust in Pampanga in 2023.

“You have been cited for contempt and ordered to be detained in the Bicutan Jail, Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig, for a period of 30 days,” read an order that cited Hong Ming Yang – also known as Michael Yang – for contempt issued by the House dangerous drugs committee.

The single-page order, signed by panel chairman Rep. Robert Ace Barbers and House secretary-general Reginald Velasco, stated there was a “unanimous vote of all members” to cite Yang in contempt for violating Section 11 of the Rules of Procedure Governing Inquiries in aid of legislation.

The Barbers committee has the power, just like other House committees, to “punish any person for contempt by a vote of two-thirds of the members present,” based on the individual’s “refusal without legal excuse to obey summons.”

House sergeant-at-arms, retired police major general Napoleon Taas, and his team served Yang the arrest order at Fortun and Santos Law Offices in Las Piñas City.

Yang, who remains missing until now, was linked to an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Corp., which owns the warehouse in Mexico town in the province of Pampanga, where P3.6 billion worth of shabu was seized.

At a press conference, Barbers revealed that Yang might have left the country.

“We were informed that the subject of the arrest order is no longer here in the country. Our last information is that he is in Dubai,” he said.

Barbers said his committee will coordinate with the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Foreign Affairs to alert other countries about the arrest order.

“So that we will be able to track him down wherever he is because he might be hiding from one place to another. So once there is an alarm, it will now provide us information where he has been traveling because he will be using definitely his own passport,” Barbers added.

The committee is trying to establish the links between and among corporations found to have interlocking incorporators with Empire 999 where shabu was ordered delivered last year.

Yang was invited to the House hearing after Lincoln Ong, a Pharmally official and alleged associate of Yang, was found to be an incorporator of a company with links to Empire 999 and other firms.

According to Barbers, Yang’s testimony is deemed crucial in unraveling the complex web of illegal drug smuggling activities linked to Empire 999.

At a previous hearing, former Philippine National Police Col. Eduardo Acierto identified Yang as the same individual he had flagged in 2017 for involvement in illegal drugs.

Acierto, who formerly worked with the police’s drug enforcement group, claimed that Duterte, then special adviser to the president and now Sen. Bong Go and then police chief and now Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, ignored his intelligence report on Yang.