MICHAEL Yang’s older brother Yang Jian Xin became a false Filipino long before the late registration of births became a template for like-minded individuals like Alice Guo.
Yang Jian Xin’s Filipino name is Antonio Maestrado Lim. His local birth certificate indicates that he was born in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental in September 1970.
“Tony Lim” was ready to flee the country with his Chinese passport when intercepted by authorities at the NAIA last week.
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Yang Jian Xin, a.k.a. Antonio Maestrado Lim, or Tony Lim, first entered the Philippines in the year 2000 carrying a Chinese passport.
He certainly fast became friends with the locals. In 2004, when he was already 30 years old, Tony Lim was able to register his bogus birth in the Philippines with the civil registry office in Balingasag.
He established businesses in the area, and became a member of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Cagayan de Oro.
Tony Lim was able to snare juicy contracts when Rodrigo Duterte was President. Why wouldn’t he when his brother Michael Yang was presidential economic adviser?
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For example, Tony Lim’s Philippine Sanjia Steel Corp. is in control of some part of the port operations in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
This is where he is reported to have smuggled rice, petroleum, and quite possibly, illegal drugs.
Tony Lim got the greenlight from the government owned corporation manning the area – the PHIVIDEC Industrial Authority. Phividec used to be headed by Gabriel “Pompee” La Vina, Duterte’s social media director when he campaigned for president in 2016.
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Phividec’s own press release proclaims La Vina as having welcomed Sanjia’s efforts in the area and assured it of the government’s “full support to make sure of an unhampered operation so that they could invite more friends from China to invest in the country.”
And invite they did. The Sanjia wharf had been reported to be swarming with Chinese transients who soon found themselves in a POGO hub in Cugman, Cagayan de Oro.
Agents of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission will likely report to Congress the same pattern of torture, abuse, and illegal detention of workers in Tony Lim’s POGO business.
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The Yang brothers have apparently made use of their close connections to the Palace to launder drug money in the Philippines, strengthen their drug network, and set up huge complexes that are seldom monitored by the authorities for criminal wrongdoing.
They have also exploited the corrupt nature of people manning the immigration bureau. It has turned a blind eye to the influx of foreigners who themselves have been scammed into coming here, not knowing the hellish conditions that awaited them.
Duterte’s victory in 2016 was a dream come true for the Yangs.
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Executive Order No. 1031 provides that the Phividec administrator is appointed by the President.
The members of its Board of Directors are also appointees of the President.
The events that transpired in that area when Duterte held power should deserve its own series of congressional inquiries. Stories of official misconduct do not seem to end./PN
