PAOCC looking into alleged links between Tony Yang and Alice Guo

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said Tony Yang, the brother of Michael Yang, an economic adviser to former president Rodrigo Duterte, was allegedly in a transaction with dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo during the height of POGO operations in her Tarlac municipality.

In a "24 Oras" report by John Consulta on Friday, sources said Yang is currently facing arrest warrants from China for alleged fraud, on top of his cases of being an undesirable alien and misrepresentation filed by the Bureau of Immigration.

“May transactions kasi kami na tinitingnan, and yung transactions na yun talagang nag-abot sila. Hindi lang isa o dalawa, nag-abot sila doon sa mga transaction na iyon. Kay Alice Guo, yung Bamban, at tsaka yung grupo nitong si Tony Yang,” said PAOCC chief Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz.

(We have transactions that we are looking into, and those transactions really match. Not just once or twice, they matched with their transactions. With Alice Guo, with Bamban, and the Tony Yang’s group.)

During Tony Yang’s arrest at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Thursday, authorities seized P1.4-million in cash, expensive items, a Chinese passport and a Philippine birth certificate bearing late registration, similar to that of Guo’s.

“Inimbestigahan namin yung ‘Antonio Maestrado Lim’. And then, sa pag-iimbestiga namin, lumalabas na siya pala ay si Tony Yang,” Cruz said.

(We are investigating a certain ‘Antonio Maestrado Lim’. And then, during our probe, it turned out that person was Tony Yang.)

Further investigation revealed that Yang’s alleged personas have almost the same birthdays.

According to Cruz, Yang’s birth certificate allowed him to create a persona that he is a Filipino citizen that allowed him to obtain government-issued IDs that include a driver’s license, firearm registration and a permit to carry.

"Kasing-level at modus na ginawa ni Alice Guo para makakuha siya nung identity nya dito sa atin (What he did was the same level and modus that Alice Guo did to get an identity here)," he said.

Cruz said PAOCC will also investigate the municipal civil registry.

“Hindi natin alam, baka hindi lang isa o sampu ito. Baka libo din ang nag late registration dito. Which is, ang iniisip namin, baka nakapag establish na din sila ng ganiyang mga criminal activities,” the PAOCC official said.

(I really don’t know, maybe it’s not just one or 10. Perhaps these late registrants are in the thousands. Which is,the way we see it, they might have established similar criminal activities.)

Yang CDO property

PAOCC said it is focusing on Yang’s 10-hectare property in Cagayan de Oro which has its own seaport and is suspected of hiding an illegal POGO hub.

“Nagpasok sila ng bigas from Vietnam, so sinita yan kasi since sila ay nasa steel business, dapat steel lang talaga ang pwede nilang gawin at pwede nilang ipasok… Yung mga structure na nakita namin doon, yung initial intel reports sa amin, talagang ginawa yun para sa POGO at maraming nakikitang mga foreign national sa loob [ng building]. So, siguro in the next few days, baka either pasukin na namin yun o inspeksyunin,” he explained.

(They imported rice from Vietnam, so they were flagged since they are in the steel business, and they are only allowed to import steel… The structures that we saw, our intelligence reports show were really made for a POGO and many foreign nationals were seen inside [the building]. So, maybe in the next few days, we might either enter or inspect it.)

After his arrest, Tony Yang underwent inquest proceedings for his violations of the immigration law, Cruz said.

Earlier, Michael Yang was also alleged to have ties with Guo and the raided Bamban POGO hub.

"Ang kumpanya ni Alice Guo, ang BAOFU, ay may direktang transaksyon sa joint account ng dalawang tao— ang isa si Yu Zheng Can, na incorporator ng Hong Sheng, ang POGO na ni-raid sa Bamban, Tarlac. Ang kasama niya sa account ay isang nagngangalang Hongjiang Yang," Senator Risa Hontiveros said in a press conference.

(The company of Alice Guo, the BAOFU, had a direct transaction with the joint account of two people—one of whom was Yu Zhen Chan, incorporator of Hong Sheng, the raided Bamban POGO hub. The other person in the account is an individual named Hongjiang Yang.)

"Who is Hongjiang Yang, you may ask? Kapatid po siya ni Michael Yang. Yes, the same Michael Yang na dating economic presidential adviser kuno ni Duterte. (He is Michael Yang’s brother. Yes, the same Michael Yang that was the former alleged economic adviser of Rodrigo Duterte.) In short, the money of Michael Yang's brother was used to fund HongSheng, the raided Bamban POGO," the senator added.
—Jiselle Anne Casucian/RF, GMA Integrated News