Businessman Tony Yang acknowledged Tuesday the presence of official documents bearing his Filipino identity as Antonio Maestrado Lim to help him run his businesses in the Philippines with ease.
Speaking through an interpreter at the Senate public hearing on the issues related to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), Yang told the committee chaired by Senator Risa Hontiveros that he has been staying in the Philippines since 1998 or 1999.
He was born as Chinese national Yang Jian Xin, who migrated to the Philippines through the help of his grandfather. He said it was his grandfather, who applied for the registration of his birth certificate when he was young.
“What I remember is that, when I was two to three years old, it was my grandfather who helped me come up with this birth certificate,” Yang told Hontiveros through interpreter Carolyn Bitay. He noted that he does not hold a Filipino passport, contrary to other documents unearthed by the Senate.
The inconsistency prompted Hontiveros to observe that some of his official records were fake, later asking why Yang was masking himself as “Filipino.” He said that it was his grandfather who helped him manage his paperwork to allow him to build his businesses with ease.
“It was my grandfather who helped me process this birth certificate. I am not aware of this, maybe he was thinking it was for my convenience,” he said in Chinese.
Yang said his alter-ego, Antonio Maestrado Lim, was created due to his inability to speak English. He said this helped other people who he was in business with to transact and communicate with him.
“This is clear to the committee that your birth certificate is fake. You have admitted that you were pretending to be Filipino to run your businesses here in the country. You have been deceiving this country for the last 26 years,” Hontiveros told Yang.
Yang also admitted that he met former President Rodrigo Duterte, but he “wasn’t very close to him.” His younger brother, Michael, served as economic adviser for the former president. The Yangs own many questionable businesses in the Philippines.
The elder Yang also acknowledged the legitimacy of his photos with several ranking officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
