Who’s the real ‘architect’ of Pogos?

The fall of Yang Jian Xin, alias Tony Yang or Antonio Maestrado Lim, into the hands of authorities on Sept. 19 was a breakthrough in the monthslong congressional investigation into the illegal activities of the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).

Yang is the elder brother of Michael Yang, a Chinese businessman who served as a presidential economic adviser during the previous administration. Tony and Michael (Yang Hong Ming) are siblings with Hong Jiang.

Tony Yang thus completes the cast of characters of “a web of mostly Chinese-run corporations” that have been established in the country since 2017, said Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales and Deputy Speaker David Suarez during the House quad committee hearing on Friday, Sept. 27 (“House probe: Yang central to web linking Pogos, drugs,” News, 9/29/24).

Yang is wanted in China for financial fraud, but we’re wise enough to keep him here so that he can face a host of charges, including identity theft and violation of immigration laws in the Philippines, and answer questions about his alleged links to Pogos and other illegal activities.

Matrix: corporate layering

In the latest House quad committee hearing on the links between illegal drugs, offshore gaming, and extrajudicial killings, Gonzales and Suarez presented a “matrix” showing direct and indirect corporate linkages and interlocking directorates of 16 companies, with Michael Yang and his business associate, Weixiong Lin (alias Allan or Alan Lim), as “main actors or players.”

It was shown during the hearing that Xionwei Technology Ltd. is owned by Lim and his wife, Rose Nono Lin. The latter served as the treasurer and chief finance officer of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Inc., which is itself embroiled in a graft case involving P11 billion used to purchase COVID-19 supplies.

One of the companies is Brickhartz Technology whose corporate documents were discovered in the Baofu compound of Bamban, Tarlac, according to the two House leaders. Corporate documents of two customer relations service providers for Xionwei were also found in the Bamban Pogo hub linked to dismissed Mayor Alice Guo.

In an earlier interview with ABS-CBN News, Michael Yang’s lawyer, Raymond Fortun, said that records presented so far in the Senate did not bear his client’s name. “To say and make a sweeping statement of that nature may appear to not have any legal or factual basis,” Fortun said.

Yang himself told the quad committee that he didn’t have a business partnership with his brothers. “I only do my own business, and they do their own business,” he said.

But Sen. Risa Hontiveros believes that the Yang family has “deep ties” to Pogos. “It is much clearer now that their family business is a massive crime syndicate that has operated in the country for far too long and has victimized far too many,” said the senator.

Elaborating, Hontiveros explained that Hongjiang Yang had direct transactions with Baofu Land Development, Inc., a company incorporated by dismissed Guo (whose real name is Guo Hua Ping) and which hosted the Hongsheng Technology later renamed to Zun Yuan Inc. Pogos.

New angle

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who has been resolute in seeking the pieces of the puzzle involving the Yangs, tagged Tony Yang as a key figure in the Pogo operations. “He is involved in the Pogo operations not only in Bamban, but also in other areas,” said the senator.

“I think this could be a new angle regarding the Bamban Pogo hub,” said Gatchalian.

While the House focuses on Michael Yang, who is nowhere to be found, both Hontiveros and Gatchalian are correct in zeroing in on Tony Yang. For one, the latter is under the custody of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) after being cited in contempt by the quad committee for lying.

Second, documents show that the elder Yang is the president of Oro One Corp., a service provider for Xionwei, which is a Pogo center that has links to Pharmally executive Weixion Lin (alias Allan Lim), according to Hontiveros.

Third, the raided Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac, seems to be the nerve center of the Yangs-run operations.

Hontiveros uncovered that “Xionwei’s email is being used by another Pogo, Brickhartz.”

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Thus, Gatchalian is pushing for a deeper investigation to determine Tony Yang’s “possible role in the rise of Pogos here in our country.” Yang is key to unmasking the other Chinese nationals behind the raided Pogo hubs in Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga, said Gatchalian.

Finally, the PAOCC is suspicious of Tony Yang’s 10-hectare property in Cagayan de Oro City, which allegedly hosts another Pogo hub.

The Inquirer reported that Tony Yang owns multiple businesses in CDO, “including the Yang Zi Hotel—a former Pogo hub—and Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp., which was allegedly involved in rice smuggling and human trafficking.”

On alleged drug links, “Lim was accused of being the operator of a clandestine laboratory discovered in Cavite in 2003,” and in 2017, “then Police Col. Eduardo Acierto linked (Michael) Yang and Lim to the drug trade, but (then President Rodrigo) Duterte supposedly ignored these allegations. A year later, Duterte appointed Yang his economic adviser,” according to the Inquirer story.

Suarez believes that Tony Yang can be the “real mastermind of all these operations and the head of the criminal syndicate of the Yang brothers in the country.”

Hontiveros shares the same view. “We have been hearing about Michael Yang for a long time. The truth is that although Michael is better known, Tony is said to be the real architect of the Yangs’ operations,” she said. (“Michael Yang’s bro Tony named ‘true architect’ of their ‘operations’,” Inquirer.net, 9/24/24).

Based on the evidence that has been discovered so far, they may be correct. Thus, it behoves both the House and Senate to continue digging deeper into this Pogo-led web of operations. The inquiry should not spare anyone, including local executives and ranking officials of law enforcement agencies who have protected and immensely benefited from this syndicate.