The Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking into filing criminal charges against Tony Yang, brother to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser, Michael Yang, to preempt his deportation.
The National Bureau of Investigation - Northern Mindanao is working on preliminary charges of falsification and the illegal use of alias, said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla. Yang is also known as Antonio Lim, although his real name is Yang Jian Xin.
“Ang pinaka-convenient talaga deport, e. I-drop lahat ng cases. But what can it solve? It cannot solve anything. Kailangan talaga malaman natin hanggang saan ‘yan, tsaka paparusahan talaga,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said. “It has to go with punishment para hindi na maulit (so it won’t be repeated). Deterrence can only be achieved with the certainty of punishment.”
(The most convenient thing to do is deport him. Drop all the cases. But what can it solve? It cannot solve anything. We really need to uncover the extent of the crime, and punish him.)
Yang would have been expelled from the country on the grounds of having misrepresented himself as Filipino and falsifying information to do so. In the Tuesday Senate hearing, he confessed to being a Chinese national with an illegally-obtained Filipino citizenship, which served to grant him access to documents like a gun license, tax identification number, and birth certificate, as well as allowed him to found companies in the Philippines. He denied any involvement with Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), however.
He was arrested on September 19 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) with the help of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), the Bureau of Immigration (BI), and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, after having been associated with dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s POGO facility.
