Tony Yang denies involvement with Pogos

Tony Yang, the elder brother of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s former presidential adviser Michael Yang, has denies any connection to Philippine offshore gaming Operators (Pogos). (Screengrab from Senate of the Philippines/Youtube)

MANILA, Philippines — Tony Yang, the elder brother of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte’s former presidential adviser Michael Yang, has denied any connection to Philippine offshore gaming Operators (Pogos).

During the Senate committee hearing on illegal Pogos on Tuesday, Senator Risa Hontiveros bared allegations that Tony Yang is the president of a service provider for a Pogo hub linked to a Pharmally executive.

“Right now I don’t have any business related to Pogo,” Yang said in Chinese and translated to English by an interpreter when asked if he has ties with Pogos.

Hontiveros pressed Yang if he was the president of Oro One Corporation, the supposed service provider of a Pogo hub called “Xionwei.”

“I’m not really sure of the name of the company, perhaps during that time, they needed a business permit,” he replied.

According to Hontiveros, Xionwei is the reversed name of Lin Weixion alias Alan Lim of Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., which was embroiled in a controversy involving COVID-19 supplies procured during the Duterte administration.

The Senate blue ribbon committee previously investigated Pharmally over its allegedly anomalous deals with the government.