How corporate layering suggests a link between POGOs and Chinese drug lords
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) on Wednesday, November 27, bared possible links between the illegal drug trade and Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), highlighting the layers of corporations used to conceal these connections.
PDEA Assistant Secretary Renato Gumban said the agency began its investigation after 560 kilos of shabu were seized from a warehouse in Mexico, Pampanga, on Sept. 24, 2023.
The warehouse was owned by a certain Willie Ong, also known as Cai Qimeng. Ong holds 49% of Empire 999, one of the seven companies whose assets Malacañang has asked the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze, as the House Quad Panel investigates them.
Ong co-owns Empire 999 with Aedy Yang. However, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) confirmed that none of the owners of Empire 999 are Filipino; they are all Chinese.
“Supposedly it’s a Filipino owned corporation but it turns out that all the incorporators of the company are Chinese nationals,” NBI Task Force Against Illegal Drugs chief Jonathan Galicia said.
These Chinese nationals were able to own a business because they possessed fake birth certificates, according to Galicia.
In July 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission ordered the revocation of Empire 999’s certificate of incorporation. In the order, the SEC listed Willie Ong, Elaine Chua, Michelle Sy, Aiedy Yang, and Jack Yang as the incorporators.
Aedy also owns Golden Sun 999 and Yatai Industrial Park. He co-owns Golden Sun 999 with businesswoman-turned-aspiring politician Rose.
Rose owns several companies, including the controversial Pharmally and another tied to POGOs. She has a direct link to former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang, as they hold roles in the same business entities.
Here are the companies where Rose Nono Lin and Michael Yang have ties to:
- Full Win Group of Companies
- Paili Estate Group Corp.
- Paili Holdings Corp.
- Golden Sun 999
- Pharmally
Paili Holdings Corp. is a general construction business. Gumban said the PDEA believes that this business firm is responsible for constructing POGO buildings.
Michael Yang is the chairman of Full Win and a stockholder of Paili Estate and Holdings. More notably, Yang is also the financier and guarantor for Pharmally, the pharmaceutical company at the center of controversial government transactions during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Circling back to Rose, her husband, Allan Lim, is also an incorporator of Paili Holdings Corp.
“According to this informant, Allan Lim is a close friend of then Special Assistant to the President, Christopher Bong Go,” Gumban said.
However, lawmakers scolded Gumban for showing Go on the matrix without sufficient basis to say that he is involved in either illegal drug trade or POGOs. Gumban explained he was merely there to show that Allan and others have penetrated the circles of powerful people.
Allan has also been photographed with both Michael and former president Rodrigo Duterte.
Gumban said that Lim was involved in several criminal activities: including the kidnapping of high rolling Chinese gamblers in Okada Manila, as well as an illegal drug case in Cavite, which was dismissed in 2015. Allan also holds Japanese and Cambodian passports.
Both Allan and Michael are tied to the Johnson Chua Drug Trafficking Organization. Chua allegedly owns multiple drug operations, including a drug warehouse in Cagayan De Oro and shabu laboratories in Dumoy and Bunawan in Davao City.
While Michael’s name has consistently popped up in different investigations into illegal drugs, Pharmally and POGOs, Gumban admitted that they have yet to pin down Michael’s direct link to either.
However, Michael does have two brothers: Tony Yang (also known as Yang Jian Xin and Antonio Lim) and Hong Jiang Yang.
Tony also has ties to Chua. Tony was recently detained by Bureau of Immigration officials. He has since admitted that he is a Chinese national who faked being a Filipino in order to operate businesses in the country.
Hong Jiang, who is also an incorporator of Full Win and Paili Estate, is the person who connects Michael to the alleged drug personalities to POGOs. The third Yang brother has bank transactions with Baofu Land Development, who owns the land where the POGO firm Hongsheng Gaming Technology, later renamed as Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, was built.
Baofu is owned by dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, who has since become the symbol for illegal POGOs in the country.
Hong Jiang allegedly sent P3.3 billion to bankroll Hongsheng.
Based on information from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), the RMCE Metal Products Trading Co. received bank transfers from Alice Guo through her personal accounts and her family business, QJJ Farms.
The AMLC and the PDEA have investigated the RMCE Metal Products Trading Co. for its financial transactions with Ronnie Chua and Concepcion Chua.
“The Chua accounts have previously been identified by PDEA as instruments used for money laundering by convicted Chinese drug lord Wu Tuan Yuan, better known as Peter Co. These accounts are subject of money laundering cases,” Gumban said.
Co is currently serving a drug sentence in Sablayan Penal Farm. He was believed to be one of the drug lords responsible for the proliferation of illegal substances in New Bilibid Prison in 2016. He was recently transferred to the custody of the Philippine marines.
Gumban, however, admitted that all of this is just part of their ongoing investigation, and they are still working towards more concrete ties.
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