CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines — Controversial Chinese businessman Tony Yang was comfortably seated among the political elite of Cagayan de Oro and Misamis Oriental, including former president Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, during a high-profile city hall event in early 2023.
The city government honored Duterte and Go as “adopted sons” of Cagayan de Oro in March 2023, following city council resolutions authored by two councilors closely tied to Duterte’s group in Davao.
The 54-year-old Chinese businessman, who was arrested by immigration authorities on September 19, is the elder brother of Michael Yang who served as Duterte’s presidential adviser on economic affairs.
Tony Yang’s case has drawn national attention, with his brother Michael being accused of leveraging his relationship with Duterte to secure lucrative business deals during the previous administration.
Michael was behind Pharmally Pharmaceutical, which supplied the government with millions of pesos worth of substandard personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic. He and his brothers, including Tony, have also been linked to the illegal drug trade and controversial offshore gaming operations.
Who invited Tony Yang?
Councilor Yam Lam “Alam” Lim told Rappler on Wednesday, September 25, that Yang attended the city hall luncheon in honor of Duterte and Go at the Luxe Hotel, shook hands with them and local officials, and then joined them at the presidential table.
“He came with the Chinese chamber. We cannot just tell him to go elsewhere. Out of respect, he was asked to join us at the table and he did,” Lim said.
Yang sat a few seats away from Duterte and Go, across from where Cagayan de Oro Mayor Rolando Uy was seated.
Next to Uy in the huge round table was Councilor Joyleen Mercedes “Girlie” Balaba, Duterte and Go. Also seated at the presidential table where Misamis Oriental Governor Peter Unabia, Councilor Romeo Calizo, and Lim.
Balaba, who authored a separate resolution to honor Go, said she was unaware about who invited Yang to the event.
“I just know him to be the brother of Michael Yang. I don’t know exactly who invited him to that event,” she said.
Balaba and Lim authored two city council resolutions, which were sharply criticized by human rights activists and Duterte’s critics in Cagayan de Oro at that time.
One resolution, authored by Lim, named Duterte an “adopted son” of Cagayan de Oro in recognition of his “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure push, his controversial war on drugs, and the government’s pandemic response.
The other, pushed by Balaba, honored Go for setting up Malasakit Centers – one-stop hubs for medical and financial aid – across the country, including two in Cagayan de Oro.
Balaba, a former ABS-CBN Davao broadcast journalist, is known for her very close ties to the former president, whom she said she frequently consults on legal matters.
Meanwhile, Lim is the brother-in-law of Davao businessman Sammy Uy, reportedly one of Duterte’s key financial supporters in Davao City.
Mysterious mingler
Councilor Roger Abaday, who attended the event, said it was not the first time for Tony Yang to attend a city hall event.
“He mingled and attended all kinds of events. He was everywhere, but little was known about him until now. I didn’t know who he was,” Abaday said.
Balaba said she recalled Yang being introduced to her at the Army-owned golf course in Camp Evangelista in Patag, Cagayan de Oro.
“I was playing golf, and he was with another group of golfers at that time,” she said. “He does not know me.”
Tony Yang gained public attention after Santa Rosa City Representative Dan Fernandez linked him to alleged illegal drug and smuggling activities at a government-owned industrial complex in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, as well as a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) in Cugman, Cagayan de Oro.
Yang appeared before a Senate committee on Tuesday, September 24, where senators questioned him about his business dealings and alleged connections to criminal activities in Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro.
Fictitious names and wealth
Yang told senators he moved to Cagayan de Oro six months after arriving in Manila from mainland China in the late 1990s, at the behest of his late grandfather, who wanted him to help a relative in the city’s textile business.
He said it was his maternal grandfather who provided him with P800,000 to invest in business ventures in Cagayan de Oro.
More than two decades later, Yang established an P800-million steel manufacturing plant, the Philippine Sanjia Steel Corporation, in Misamis Oriental. He also built another company that ran a POGO in a high-end mixed-used commercial and residential complex in Cagayan de Oro.
The Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) told senators that Sanjia Steel is currently operating with at least 300 workers from China. At its peak, the PAOCC said the steel manufacturer employed around 2,000 Chinese workers at its plant within the 3,000-hectare Phividec industrial estate in Misamis Oriental.
Congressmen have alleged that Sanjia Steel, which has its own wharf, at the 3,000-hectare industrial estate of the Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corporation (Phividec) in Misamis Oriental, has been used as a drop-off point for illegal drugs, smuggled rice and other goods.
Hontiveros said Yang, whose true name is Yang Jian Xin, managed to secure a Philippine birth certificate in the name of Antonio Maestrado Lim. He has also several business companies registered in the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) under his Filipino name.
“For 25 years, Yang used his different fictitious names to make money from this country,” Hotiveros said at the Senate hearing.
Duterte legitimized POGOs
Hontiveros said Yang owns and is majority stockholder of Oroone Incorporated, a POGO service provider registered with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
On April 3, 2017, the Cagayan de Oro City Council passed Resolution No. 12660-2017, permitting the operation of Oroone at the Alwana Business Park in Barangay Cugman.
Councilor Abaday said the local government was aware of the POGO operations in the city, but no local official had issues about it at that time “because Digong (Duterte) legitimized” offshore gaming operations.
Another councilor, Ian Mark Nacaya, said there was no law making POGO operations illegal in the country until now.
A document showed it was Nacaya who moved for the approval of the resolution in favor of Oroone’s operations in Cugman, but he told Rappler that he only did that as chairman of the city council’s laws and rules committee at that time, and because it was greenlit by the local committee on games and amusement.
Before the Senate committee, Tony Yang denied he owns Oroone, and claimed that he merely served as a dummy, an assertion doubted by senators.
Cagayan de Oro police director Colonel Salvador Radam said a police team that inspected the Oroone facilities recently found them empty, except for tables and chairs left behind by its occupants.
Cops and photos
During the hearing, Hontiveros showed photographs of police officers in Cagayan de Oro posing with Yang. Yang acknowledged knowing some of them, including former PNP chief General Benjamin Acorda Jr., who served as the police director for Northern Mindanao at the time one of the photos was taken.
“Yang is very generous to everyone, especially the police officers,” Cagayan Oro Councilor George Goking told local broadcaster Magnum Radio on Tuesday.
A police official in one of the photos, Colonel Lemuel Gonda, chief of the PNP Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit, protested the showing of one of the photos during the Senate panel hearing, saying it put him in a bad light. Gonda was operations chief of the Cagayan de Oro police at that time the photo was taken.
“People often come to me and ask to have their photos taken with me. It’s part of our community relations. We were providing security during the city hall event organized for former president Duterte. Yang approached us and asked if he could have a photo taken with us, and we agreed,” Gonda said.
He urged Hontiveros to be “prudent,” adding that the senator’s researchers should determine the context of the photos they present in consideration of other people’s reputations. – Rappler.com
