Bombshell claims link Philippines’ Duterte clan to massive meth smuggling scheme

In 2018, Guban had named a different suspect, police officer Eduardo Acierto, before the Senate. But now, appearing before a newly formed congressional “super committee”, he claimed he had received death threats and was pressured to falsely implicate Acierto, describing himself as the victim of a “grand conspiracy to clean the name of the First Family [the Dutertes] and Michael Yang”.

Recanting his previous Senate testimony, Guban at the August 16 hearing asked to be placed in a witness protection programme. He named additional alleged members of the syndicate, including Davao City councillor Nilo Abillera Jnr, who he said represented Yang and Carpio, as well as journalists Paul Gutierrez and Benny Antiporda. Guban identified Gutierrez, speaking on behalf of Antiporda, as one of the individuals who had threatened to kill him and kidnap his child.

The accused vehemently denied Guban’s allegations. Congressman Paolo Duterte, the former president’s son, said he did not know Guban. Carpio dismissed the “baseless and maliciously false” imputation against him, while Gutierrez and Antiporda, now in government positions, issued separate denials. There has been no reaction from the elusive Chinese national Michael Yang, who faces a congressional arrest order in another drug-trafficking case.

Guban was a “surprise witness”, appearing midway through a seven-hour hearing of the newly formed “quad committee” – a Lower House group formed earlier this month by merging the work of four other committees: dangerous drugs, public order and safety, human rights and public accounts.

Barry Gutierrez, a criminal law professor and former congressman, told This Week in Asia that if Guban’s revelations proved true, it would “confirm what many have suspected all along: that the ‘drug war’ was a sham, and that the supposed ‘opponents’ of illegal drugs were actually its biggest purveyors.”

“Guban is obviously a scoundrel, and vulnerable to pressure to boot. Still, witnesses to criminal operations of this level – large-scale drug smuggling in this case – are never saints.”

While acknowledging Guban’s tainted credibility, Gutierrez emphasised that his testimony was just the start, and a “credible investigation and possible prosecution will require more” to substantiate the claims.

The reaction to Guban’s testimony was mixed. Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV told This Week in Asia that he was “still on the fence” as some of Guban’s information aligned with his understanding, but he was still validating the rest.

However, Gutierrez noted that with Congress now investigating corruption and abuse under the Duterte administration, it was only a matter of time before a witness emerged pointing to the alleged involvement of the Dutertes and their allies in illegal activities.

When asked if he found it conceivable that the Duterte family could be tied to the drug trade, Gutierrez pointed to a 2019 report by the Interagency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs that found a “suspiciously low rate of drug seizure – 1 per cent of the total estimated market volume”.

He suggested that the “involvement of high-level players with government connections would go a long way to explaining that apparent paradox”.

Not everyone was convinced by Guban’s bombshell claims, though.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who served as police chief under Duterte, lashed out at the quad committee members as “unprincipled opportunists”.

Dela Rosa went on to criticise the credibility and timing of Guban’s testimony, dismissing it on Thursday as “obvious[ly] scripted”. He said he would file a resolution for his own Senate committee to study Guban’s “very unbelievable stories”.

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“They want to project the [Duterte] family as corrupt, as criminals, as worthless selfish people … because we are a threat to the perpetuation in power of [certain] people,” Duterte-Carpio said.

The competing narratives and long-standing political feuds have transformed Guban’s testimony into a high-stakes showdown, with the fate of the Duterte family’s political legacy and the credibility of the anti-drug campaign hanging in the balance.

As the investigations continue, the public will be watching closely to see whether the claims of corruption and collusion can be substantiated, or if this is merely the latest chapter in the Philippines’ ongoing political drama.

Gutierrez, the criminal law professor, told This Week in Asia that there was a sense of “what goes around comes around” in the current saga.

“But if this is going to be more than political theatre, additional witnesses and evidence will have to be brought forward,” he said.