Tony Yang, the brother of Michael Yang, who was an economic adviser during the Duterte administration, attends the Senate probe on Pogo hubs. (Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net)
MANILA, Philippines — Tony Yang has claimed that he and his brother, former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, are not on good terms and have not seen each other for a long time.
At the House of Representatives’ quad committee hearing on Friday, 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez asked Tony if he knows the whereabouts of Michael, the former adviser of then president Rodrigo Duterte.
Michael is alleged by members of the quad committee to be part of a web of operations involving Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo) and the illegal drugs trade.
“Mr. Chair, can Mr. Yang tell us where his brothers are now?” Gutierrez asked.
“Where are they now? I don’t know. I heard from them that Yang Hong Ming is in Thailand. One day, Yang Hong Ming and I contacted each other. One day, he called me and asked where I was. I asked him where he was. He said he was in Thailand,” Yang said through the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission interpreter Dylan, the Malaysian who was sold for P300,000 to the Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac.
“So, Mr. Chair, you are still in close contact with your brothers. This is both Michael Yang and Hong Jiang,” Gutierrez said.
“No, no. When I first came to the Philippines, I had little contact with Yang Hong Ming […] I think our relations were not good,” Yang said through Dylan.
Gutierrez and Dylan at some points had difficulty understanding each other, prompting the lawmaker to ask if the quad committee’s official interpreter, Caroline Batay, had arrived.
After Batay’s arrival, Gutierrez went on with his interpellation of Yang.
“Mr. Chair, Mr. Yang, your brother, Michael Yang, what year did he leave the Philippines? When did your relationship sour with Michael Yang?” Gutierrez asked.
“We didn’t have a good relationship,” Yang said through Batay. “So I have come here to the Philippines for around 30 years and from that time our relationship is not that good already.”
Yang also denied doing business with his siblings Michael and Hong Jiang.
“Thirty years, but you had businesses with your brothers Michael and Hong Jiang, Is that correct Mr. Chair?” Gutierrez asked.
“No. I don’t have any partnership or company together with them, I only do my own business, and they do their own business,” Yang added.
Later on into the quad committee hearing Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez asked several questions about Yang’s business partners and people who posed in photos with him, but he evaded these by saying that he did not know them.
Due to this, Fernandez moved to cite Yang for contempt, which was seconded by Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr.
Abante then moved to detain Yang at the Quezon City Jail until the quad committee finishes its hearings. It was amended towards the end of the hearings, with Yang being detained instead at the PAOCC headquarters.
Last September 20, Fernandez announced that Yang was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
According to Fernandez, Yang Jian Xin supposedly uses a Filipino name of Antonio Lim.