CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – For years, illicit operations allegedly flourished under the radar of government agencies in Northern Mindanao. A 3,000-hectare government-owned industrial estate in Misamis Oriental, designed to boost the local economy, has allegedly become a playground for a Chinese crime syndicate involved in drug trafficking, smuggling, and offshore gaming.
At the center of the controversy is Yang Jian Xin, a Chinese also known by aliases Antonio Maestrado Lim and Tony Yang. He is the elder brother of Michael Yang, a former economic adviser to ex-president Rodrigo Duterte.
Tony Yang was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on Thursday, September 19, for being an undesirable alien. His arrest coincided with congressional hearings about allegations that drugs and contraband were moving through the Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corporation (Phividec) industrial estate in Misamis Oriental, via Yang’s firm, Philippine Sanjia Steel Corporation.
Northern Mindanao’s police director, Brigadier General Ricardo Layug, said Yang has been a businessman in Cagayan de Oro for about 20 years, interacting with local business circles, especially the Chinese Filipino community.
Layug claimed that Yang’s involvement in illegal activities was unknown to him, as he had assumed Yang was a legitimate Chinese Filipino businessman.
Yang’s company operates the steel mill at Phividec. The compound, which the firm has been leasing from the government since the Duterte administration, includes a wharf that Santa Rosa, Laguna Representative Dan Fernandez claimed was used for sneaking drugs, rice, and other goods into the country.
In previous years, Fernandez said, smuggling operations were uncovered through Yang’s other businesses, Golden Sun Cargo Examination Services and Yangtze Rice Mill.
Yang’s operations extended into offshore gaming, with officials linking him to a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) that once operated at the gated Alwana Business Park in nearby Cugman, Cagayan de Oro.
According to Fernandez, Yang also established many other companies through the years such as the Yangtze Trade Company Incorporated in 2000. The company later expanded into various firms such as:
- Yangtze River Economy United Development
- Yangtze Pharmaceutical Group
- Yangtze River International Group
- HK Yangtze Group International
- Yangtze River Pharmaceutical Group
- Yangtze Rice Mill
Fernandez and other congressmen said Yang’s network showed a web of connections between Chinese firms, POGOs, smuggling, and drug syndicates.
Deal with Phividec
In 2018, Yang’s group signed a memorandum of understanding with Phividec, allowing them to lease property at P30 per square meter. The firm broke ground the following year.
At that time, the Phividec estate was administered by former Iligan mayor Franklin Quijano, a staunch supporter of Duterte’s 2016 presidential bid. Quijano was later appointed chairman of the National Commission of Senior Citizens by Duterte.
Quijano’s successor, Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña, who served as social media director for Duterte’s 2016 campaign, was appointed Phividec administrator in 2020. He stepped down in 2022 to run for Cagayan de Oro mayor, a race he lost.
The current Phividec administrator is lawyer Joseph Donato “Cid” Bernedo, the husband of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s youngest sister, Aimee. Bernedo has not responded to Rappler’s request for comment as of posting time.
Blending in
Layug said he has had dinner with Yang and local businessmen on several occasions and was unaware that the Chinese was involved in illegal activities.
Layug added that he had assumed Yang was a Chinese Filipino, and was unaware that he was also known as Antonio Lim.
“He was introduced to me as Mr. Yang. What I know is that his business involves buying scrap metal to produce construction materials,” Layug told local broadcaster DXCC-RMN on Sunday, September 22.
He said Yang was actively involved with local Chinese Filipino groups, such as the Chinese Masons.
A Cagayan de Oro councilor, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Rappler that Yang presented himself as a legitimate businessman, blending into the local Chinese Filipino business community.
“He was active in one of the Chinese business groups and played golf even inside Camp Evangelista,” the councilor said.
Camp Evangelista is the headquarters of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division in Cagayan de Oro, which has a golf course within the camp.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, another official told Rappler that Yang developed a reputation as the “kingpin” of Chinese mainlanders in Cagayan de Oro.
During the House quad committee hearing on Thursday, Fernandez said Yang is the president of Philippine Sanjia Steel, which operates the steel mill at the Phividec estate in Baluarte, Tagoloan town in Misamis Oriental.
Speaking through an interpreter, Chen Xiang Ling, an engineer at the Sanjia Steel plant, told reporters on Saturday that Yang was no longer with the firm. The interpreter presented a document showing that Yang sold 35% of his shares to another company on August 12, 2024, or just over a month ago.
Drop-off point
Beneath the firm’s legitimate façade, a darker undercurrent has been raised: Fernandez said Sanjia Steel’s wharf at Phividec has allegedly served as a drop-off point for illegal drugs and smuggled goods, including rice.
Sanjia Steel occupies 47 hectares of the Phividec estate in Tagoloan, a town in Misamis Oriental east of Cagayan de Oro. The town has been a strategic business hub since the 1970s, home to the Phividec estate, a massive industrial complex stretching into the neighboring town of Villanueva. The vast area, established in 1974 by the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, was meant to benefit the country’s veterans and military retirees while bolstering rural development.
Phividec, a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC), profits from leasing land, collecting fees, and providing facilities to various industries. The businesses operating in the Misamis Oriental industrial estate range from power generation and petroleum to cement, food processing, and steel.
Phividec’s infrastructure supports legitimate businesses, and it oversees one of Northern Mindanao’s major gateways, the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT).
JV Vasallo, technical director of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Northern Mindanao, said there were over 100 Chinese workers at the Sanjia Steel plant in Tagoloan during their inspection on Saturday, September 21.
Vasallo said alien working permits were presented for at least 140 Chinese workers, but DOLE has yet to verify these, along with other documents.
He said there were no indications that Sanjia Steel’s facilities at Phividec were used for offshore gaming operations, although he confirmed that the firm has its own wharf.
In 2021, authorities uncovered rice smuggling operations at Sanjia Steel through two other firms allegedly owned by Yang — Golden Sun Cargo Examination Services Corporation and Yangtze Rice Mill, according to Fernandez.
POGO in Cagayan de Oro
Yang’s business address is located at the privately owned Alwana Business Park in Cugman, eastern Cagayan de Oro, roughly a 30-minute drive from the Phividec estate. The Alwana complex is an approximately 20-hectare mixed-use private property developed by the Lims, a prominent Cagayan de Oro Chinese Filipino family. The Lim family is unrelated to Yang, who uses the alias Antonio Maestrado Lim.
The gated Alwana complex includes residential areas, retail stores, office spaces, recreational amenities, wide-open spaces, and greenery. It is best known for the Marco Hotel, a frequent destination and meeting place of local and national politicians.
At the rear of the complex is a chain of warehouses owned by various companies, including a multi-level building said to be owned by Yang, which was used for offshore gaming operations.
Interestingly, the building plan submitted by Yang’s group to the local government was similar to the POGOs in Bamban, Tarlac, according to Fernandez.
According to Layug, the POGO operated at Alwana until July 2023, two months before he assumed the role of police director for Northern Mindanao.
“Many Chinese stayed there,” a boy living near the area told Rappler.
A local vendor said they thought the building was a hotel built exclusively for Chinese people.
“Last week, the police came. All the people staying there left after that. Some were Tagalog-speaking,” she said.
In 2020, Cagayan de Oro Councilor Roger Abaday said a Bureau of Immigration (BI) official confirmed to the city council that around 2,000 Chinese were working at the Alwana POGO at the time.
Fernandez accused Yang and other Chinese of disguising themselves as Filipinos to conduct illegal activities. Despite being Chinese, Yang holds a Philippine passport under the name Antonio Lim, according to Fernandez.
He also claimed that Yang had financial transactions amounting to P3.5 billion with dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, a claim Guo denied during the House quad committee hearing. – Rappler.com
