House probe: Yang central to web linking Pogos, drugs

Michael Yang —Malacañang photo

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly two months of inquiry into the links between illegal drugs, offshore gaming and extrajudicial killings have uncovered the involvement of a web of mostly Chinese-run corporations whose central figure is former President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser Michael Yang, according to two leaders of the House of Representatives.

Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales and Deputy Speaker David Suarez on Friday presented a “matrix” showing direct and indirect corporate linkages and interlocking directorates of 16 companies mostly established during the Duterte administration based on records gathered by the special House quad committee.

READ: Michael Yang’s family tried to make CDO their ‘kingdom’ – PAOCC

‘Corporate layering’

Their matrix revealed “a pattern, a partnership and an alignment” that helped them discover and identify at least two “main actors or players”—Yang and his business associate Allan Lim, Suarez said.

Yang and Lim have both been identified in the House probe as Chinese nationals, named Yang Hong Ming and Weixiong Lin, respectively.

Yang and Lim operated two companies Paili Holdings Corp. (established in 2019) and Philippine Full Win Group of Companies (established in 2017).

A complex web of “corporate layering,” as Suarez and Gonzales characterized it, traced them to companies involved in illegal offshore gaming, including the controversial Baofu Land Development Corp. previously owned by former Bamban, Tarlac, Mayor Alice Guo.

These links can be further traced back to Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Inc. the company that was involved in alleged overpricing of medical supplies during the pandemic, and where Lim’s wife, Rose Nono Lin, served as treasurer and chief financial officer.

Kidnapped workers

None of these corporations and company officials could be reached for comment on Saturday.

Suarez highlighted a recurring pattern where Yang used Filipinos Gerald Cruz, Jayson Uson and Yugin Zheng, while Lim used his wife, as nominees to conceal corporate ownership.

The two House leaders said one company, Brickhartz Technology, was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of workers to be brought to Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) compounds, and whose corporate documents were discovered in the Baofu compound in Bamban, Tarlac.

Baofu had leased land to an illegal offshore gaming company called Hongsheng Technology Inc. which was renamed as Zun Yuan Technology Inc. Zun Yuan was shut down in March by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).

Hongsheng which was raided in June 2024 on suspicion of operating a scam farm, human trafficking and money laundering. It allegedly got its license to operate in Bamban, Tarlac, at Guo’s request to the city council.

Brickhartz is supposedly a service provider for a Pogo called Xionwei Technology Ltd., which is owned by Lim and his wife.

Lim’s wife is also listed as an incorporator in at least eight other companies connected to Yang, including a company called Philippine Full Win Group of Companies established in 2017 and Paili Holdings Corp. established in 2020.

Gerald Cruz, who is an incorporator of Brickhartz, is also the corporate secretary of the Full Win Group.

Another company called Oroone Inc., owned by Yang’s eldest brother, Tony Yang, provides customer relations service to Xionwei.

Yang brothers

Several service providers of Xionwei are also linked to the Baofu Pogo hub. Turquoise Diamond Technology Corp and Shidaikeiji Technology Corp., both customer relations service providers of Xionwei, were found inside the Pogo hub in Bamban.

Tony Yang, who uses the alias Antonio Lim, was arrested on Sept. 19 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport after being flagged as an undesirable alien. He admitted being a Chinese citizen. The PAOCC said he had fraudulently acquired genuine Philippine government documents to fake his Filipino identity.

Tony Yang, the eldest of three Yang brothers who operated in the Philippines, also owns multiple businesses in Cagayan de Oro City, including the Yang Zi Hotel—a former Pogo hub—and Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp., which was allegedly involved in rice smuggling and human trafficking.

Suarez said Tony Yang appears to be the “real mastermind of all these operations and the head of the criminal syndicate of the Yang brothers in the country.”

Drug trade links

Interestingly, it was not their links to Pogos but to the drug trade that pushed both Michael Yang and Lim into the spotlight.

Lim was accused of being the operator of a clandestine laboratory discovered in Cavite in 2003, while Yang allegedly ran meth labs in Mindanao during the same period.

In 2017, then Police Col. Eduardo Acierto linked Yang and Lim to the drug trade, but Duterte supposedly ignored these allegations. A year later, Duterte appointed Yang his economic adviser.

Land acquisition

One of the executives of Pharmally is Yang’s translator, Linconn Ong, who is a part owner of another company called Empire 999.

This company owns the warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, where P3 billion worth of “shabu” was found in a 2023 raid.

Both are also allegedly linked to the raided Lucky South 99 Pogo in Porac, Pampanga, which leased land from a company called Whirlwind Inc. Whirlwind’s lawyer is former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, and its main incorporator, Cassandra Li Ong, who is also the representative for Lucky South. She is the girlfriend of Guo’s brother Wesley Guo.

Suarez and Gonzalez said, foreign nationals linked to Yang and Lim were acquiring land through fraudulent means, including the use of fake birth certificates and government IDs.

“This is a serious threat to our national security and to our very sovereignty as a nation,” Suarez pointed out.

None of these corporations and company officials could be reached for comment on Saturday.

Based on its findings, Gonzales said the quad committee will recommend the filing of criminal, civil and administrative cases against those involved, as well as introducing legislative reforms to close the loopholes in the legal system.