THE chairperson of the House Committee on Public Order and Safety has revealed the ties that bind illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and drugs traders, saying it involves a complex network of Chinese nationals, including former president Rodrigo Duterte’s then presidential adviser Michael Yang.
In a matrix which Sta. Rosa Rep. Dan Fernandez presented before the Joint Committee on Public Order and Safety, and Games and Amusement late Wednesday afternoon, the lawmaker exposed the links between POGOs and drug operations.
Fernandez cited the findings of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that showed suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, who had 36 accounts, was involved in bank transactions amounting to P29 billion.
He said the joint panel was able to establish that Hong Jiang Yang, Yang’s brother, had transactions worth P3.3 billion with Guo, who according to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, is one of the brains behind the POGO hub raided in Bamban, Tarlac.
“It’s not only the criminal activities of POGOs and the corporations established by Chinese nationals, but also drugs are involved,” Fernandez said. “Come to think of it. P29 billion si Alice Guo pa lang ‘yan at umikot sa kanyang 36 accounts (That’s only Alice Guo and it revolved around her 36 accounts). So, what more to the others?”
Fernandez however said the origin and destination of the funds involved are still unclear and the joint panel still needs to dig deeper to find out the nature of the transactions.
Michael Yang, who was also the financier of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., the supplier of the government’s medical needs during the pandemic, has reportedly fled to Dubai even before the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs could even serve a warrant for his arrest.
Pharmally was involved in a scandal over allegations of overpricing of its medical supplies.
Yang, who is believed to be one and the same person as Hong Ming Yang, was cited in contempt and ordered arrested by the dangerous drugs panel chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers last July 10.
The panel summoned Yang after he was linked to an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Corp., which owns the warehouse in Mexico town in Pampanga, where P3.6 billion worth of shabu was seized.
MATRIX
Fernandez began his presentation by referencing the extensive investigation being held since last year by the Barbers panel into the P3.6 billion worth of shabu seized in the municipality of Mexico which came from the Port of Subic.
This probe was what led to separate inquiries by the Committee on Public Accounts into properties acquired with the alleged connivance of local government units, implicating former Mexico Mayor Teddy Tumang and Mayor Abundio Punsalan Jr. of San Simon, both in the province of Pampanga.
These investigations revealed that numerous hectares of land were being bought by corporations with incorporators who were Chinese nationals.
Key figures in the matrix included Aedy Yang, an incorporator of Empire 999 Realty Inc., which purportedly owns the warehouse where the P3.6 billion shabu was seized by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).
The Barbers panel earlier discovered that Yang’s interpreter, Linconn Ong, who was a controversial figure in the Pharmally scandal, is an incorporator of a company with links to other companies, including Empire 999, which is owned by suspected Chinese drug lord Willie Ong, whose real identity is believed is to be Cai Qimeng.
Fernandez said the passports of Aedy, Ong and fellow Empire 999 incorporator Jack Yang have been revoked.
He added that Yang Hua Huang of Yatai International is also an incorporator of Empire 999.
Yang Hua Huang and his wife Cai Ji Ru, on the other hand, are connected with Omni and Omni Philippines, which is being run by Yang Hua Huang’s son, Henry Bigay, whose personal circumstances were found to be similar to Guo who is accused of faking her Filipino citizenship using the late registration of her birth certificate.
The matrix showed that Aedy is also an incorporator of Golden Sun 999 Realty & Development Corp., alongside Rose Nono Lin and husband Alan Lim, who are also linked to Full Win Group of Companies, chaired by Michael Yang.
Fernandez said Gerard Cruz, an incorporator of Pharmally, is a shareholder of Brickhartz Technologies, a support provider for Xionwei Technologies, a POGO owned by Weixiong Lin, also known as Alan Lim, who was allegedly involved in a 2003 shabu raid in Cavite.
He said Hong Jiang Yang, is an incorporator of Paili State Group Corporation, along with Lin and Michael Yang.
The administration lawmaker also highlighted the involvement of other individuals like Wesley Guo and Cassandra Li Ong, whose connections to the Bamban mayor is still under investigation.
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) chair Alejandro Tengco has said that he met with Ong and former presidential spokesman Harry Roque last year to discuss the unpaid “arrears” worth $500,000 of Lucky South 99.
Ong, according to Tengco, was the representative of Lucky South 99.
DEPORTED
The Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said 27 Chinese nationals, all workers of illegal POGOs, were deported yesterday for violation of immigration laws.
In a television interview, PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio said the Chinese nationals will be criminally charged in China for engaging in illegal gambling and will be blacklisted in the Philippines.
There were 33 Chinese POGO workers who were initially set to be deported yesterday, but six of them were “offloaded” due to cases they are facing in the Philippines.
Casio said the 27 are workers of the Smart Web Technology in Pasay City and Zun Yuan Technology in Bamban, Tarlac that were earlier raided by PAOCC operatives.
“They were deported because they have immigration violations,” said Casio, of the 27, which included a mother that gave birth to a child about two weeks ago.
The were deported specifically for lack of necessary work permit and visa, PAOCC said, adding: “Technically, all of them will be treated as criminal suspects in China so they will all be charged criminally in China.”
“All of them will be blacklisted. The order of our President, through Executive Secretary (Lucas) Bersamin is the POGO workers who will be deported would be blacklisted from coming back to the Philippines. And that is what we are guaranteeing,” said Casio.
Casio urged other POGO workers to already leave the country. The Bureau of Immigration has given foreign workers in the offshore gaming industry to leave the country in two months.
“If they leave voluntarily and their papers are in order, they will not be blacklisted in the Philippines,” said Casio.
Nevertheless, he said: “Even if they leave voluntarily, if their papers are not in proper order, then they will still be blacklisted.”
WARNING
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday warned “corrupt” immigration agents not to take advantage or profit from the POGO ban.
“Pra-prangkahin ko kayo, huwag sana sila mag-iisip — maraming elements within the BI — na gagawa pa sila ng pera. Palabas na ‘yung mga Chinese. Palabas na itong mga tao, peperahan pa rin (I will be very frank with you. I hope they don’t think — there are elements within the BI — who
might make a profit from this. These Chinese people are leaving, and they might make money from this),” Remulla told reporters.
“Alam naman natin ano ito, eh, palabigasan ito na maraming corrupt elements within the BI. Huwag na nilang isipin ‘yon (We already know this: There are many corrupt elements within the Bureau of Immigration. They should not even think of this). Let’s help the President wrap up this problem,” he added.
The BI has estimated that 20,000 foreign workers will be displaced with the POGO ban ordered by the President during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 22.
To ensure that government agencies are operating on the same page on the issue, Remulla said his office will clarify with the BI what rules should be implemented regarding the deportation of foreign workers.
He said his office will conduct a high-level meeting with the National Bureau of Investigation and the BI today, Friday, on the steps the government will undertake in implementing the ban on offshore gaming facilities.
“What we want to happen is to be very organized about it, about the deportation or the repatriation proceedings to be conducted for these POGOs, so we will have a high level meeting tomorrow that will have the diff agencies, which will include the DOJ, the NBI and the BID, among others that will speak about the repatriation of the people from POGOs, if not repatriation, the transfer to other countries, that they want to arrange but they really have to leave the Philippines,” he said.
Remulla said authorities also need to ensure that the rights of the foreign workers are not violated.
“The Bureau of Immigration gave an order without consulting us kaya sinama namin sila sa high-level meeting. They cannot act independently on this. That is why we held in abeyance yung ginawa ng BI, because we have to schedule everything properly so that things will happen properly,” Remulla said, referring to an earlier announcement by the BI that foreign POGO workers have to leave within 60 days.
‘STRANGE’
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday said she finds it “strange” that a Chinese fugitive was arrested in a house where Roque used to live and which is owned by a corporation where the former presidential spokesman has interests in.
Hontiveros said that there are many houses in the country where Sun Liming could have stayed.
She wondered if it was just mere coincidence that he was arrested in Block 23, Lot 37 in Pinewood Golf and Country Estate in Tuba, Benguet, which was owned by PH2 Corporation, where Biancham Holdings and Trading Inc is a majority shareholder.
Roque earlier said he has around 10 to 20 percent shares in Biancham Holdings. He also admitted that he lived in that house after getting out of the government.
He said he had since vacated the house, which he said has been rented to one Wan Yu, a Chinese woman, since January this year.
He also earlier said that Wan and her partner Sun could not have been involved in illegal POGO activities since they have a caretaker who regularly reports to him about the activities of the lessees.
“Inamin din ni Roque na may bantay siya mismo sa bahay at supervised niya ang nangyayari doon. Kaya nakapagtataka na sa dami ng bahay sa Pilipinas kay Roque pa talaga napunta ang pugante (Roque admitted that he has a caretaker in the house which supervises the daily happenings. That’s why I find it kind of strange that of all the houses in the country, the fugitive landed on that house),” Hontiveros said.
The PAOCC on Tuesday said that the male foreigner who was arrested at the Benguet house, who presented a Cambodian passport, was actually Sun Liming, who is wanted in China for defrauding Chinese of 7.09 billion yuan (P57.3 billion).
The PAOCC also said that Sun is an information technology manager of Lucky South 99, the same company which Roque helped.
Hontiveros said: “It appears this fugitive and Roque run in the same circles.”
She said Sun is not an ordinary scammer since he is included in the Interpol Red Notice as a “fugitive wanted for prosecution.”
“Hindi lang basta-bastang Chinese ang nagtago sa sinasabing bahay ni Harry Roque. Itong si Sun Liming ay bigating pugante na nasa Red Notice ng Interpol (This Chinese who hid in the house reportedly owned by Roque is no ordinary individual. Sun Liming is a high-profile fugitive listed in the Interpol Red Notice),” she said.
Hontiveros shared a copy of the Interpol Red Notice to the media.
According to the Interpol, Sun was the “actual controller” of Shenzen Limin Net Financial Information Services Co. Ltd. who, together with a certain Zhao Yang (at-large) “illegally took in public deposits in the name of Internet P2P business without the approval of national financial regulator …” from April 2014 to July 2018.
“And by promising guaranteed principal and interest of the victims and taking high annual interest of 6 percent to 10 percent of the principal as bait, they took in CNY 7 billion of public deposits from more than 180,000 victims through network marketing,” the Interpol Red Notice said.
Hontiveros said the number of foreign fugitives hiding under POGOs is alarming.
“Nakababahala ang dami ng mga dayuhang criminal sa bansa dahil sa POGO (The number of foreign fugitives in the country because of POGO is alarming). While a ban was already announced, we in the Senate need to craft measures to ensure that this industry never comes back again,” she added. — With Victor Reyes, Ashzel Hachero and Raymond Africa
