1 week Ago By Lian Buan
In Newport City in Pasay, there is a spa that offers a buffet, which Philippine undercover informants have been monitoring. It’s part of a still unsolved puzzle of China’s alleged infiltration, and even possibly cyber attacks, against the Philippines through spies and influence agents disguising as investors. So when a Chinese businessman’s application for Filipino citizenship reached the Senate (as citizenship grants have to be enacted by law), Senator Risa Hontiveros sounded the alarm that one of the businessman’s companies was in the same building as that spa.
The spa in Newport has markings of Yatai. Although Yatai — which literally means “Asia Pacific” — is a common brand name for the Chinese, Hontiveros had said before that there is reason to believe this is the She Zhijiang -owned Yatai International Holding Group. This Yatai group is what global operatives have identified as being behind alleged crimes like human trafficking and cyber fraud.
It’s why the Chinese-born She is wanted in China, detained in Thailand, and sanctioned by the United Kingdom. She, who also holds a Cambodian citizenship, has confessed to being a spy for China, and has accused Alice Guo of being a fellow spy, which the disgraced former Bamban, Tarlac mayor has denied . The spa ad also has the markings of a “9 dynasty group,” which, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), has the same incorporators as the offshore gaming firm SA Rivendell Global Gaming Corporation in Pasay City, that was raided in August 2023.
The Chinese businessman wanting a Filipino citizenship is Li Duan Wang aka Mark Ong, who owns Avia Leisure Group that operates KTVs, lounges, coffee shops, etc. Its main business is to provide leisure spaces to high-rollers who are part of a junket. Junket in the gambling world means an organized trip for VIP players to casinos in a foreign country — it’s like a holiday package, with accommodation and entertainment.
Hontiveros said that Ong’s leisure club has “exclusively Chinese clientele” with no walk-ins allowed. Ong’s Avia used to be a floor above the Yatai spa. Defending Ong, Senator Francis Tolentino said during the citizenship hearing on January 20 : “I think the mere presence of a company which, after occupying premises should not blot or involve a subsequent or a prior lessee in concluding that the presence of said entity of ill-repute can tarnish the other tenants.
” Hontiveros also questioned why the 9 Dynasty junket group listed Ong as the operator, and Avia as the address. Tolentino said: “ Ang nangyayari po, Mr. President, nagdadala lang siya ng player.
‘Yun po ‘yung kanyang naging role doon, pero hindi siya ang may-ari nitong 9 Dynasty .” (What happens Mr. President is that he brings in players, that’s his role, but he does not own 9 Dynasty.
) Hontiveros said Ong did not disclose in his citizenship applications his ties to Avia and 9 Dynasty. It also worried Hontiveros that Yatai advertises Avia as its subsidiary. Ong likewise declared himself a Filipino when they registered Avia in the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tolentino described this as unintentional omission. “You cannot be a Filipino citizen while applying to be one. Both facts cannot be true at the same time.
This clear lie already suggests bad faith on the part of the applicant,” Hontiveros said. FILIPINO CITIZENSHIP. Li Duan Wang aka Mark Ong (left) in a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Duanren Wu (right) who owns the real estate company in the raided scam farm in Porac, Pampanga.
Photo from Senator Risa Hontiveros The Chinese network Ong became more suspect to Hontiveros because of a photo showing him with Duanren Wu, the owner of the real estate company in Porac, Pampanga that hosted the alleged POGO scam farm raided in 2024. Wu is evading criminal investigations here. “It should not inspire confidence in us senators that [Ong] is an associate of a fugitive and a POGO boss embroiled in human trafficking .
Sana suriing mabuti ng mga kapwa ko senador itong background ni [Ong] kasi nagwawagayway ang mga red flag ng aplikante ( I hope my colleagues closely examine Ong’s background because the red flags are up),” Hontiveros said. “Guilt cannot be inferred solely by association, photographs, or a photo with someone accused of a crime,” Tolentino said in the hearing. Wu’s goddaughter is Katherine Cassandra Ong , who has publicly declared a romantic relationship with Wesley Guo, the brother of Alice Guo.
This network eventually connects to Michael Yang, former presidential economic adviser to Rodrigo Duterte. Yang’s middle brother Hongjiang Yang holds a joint bank account with one of the owners of the company in the compound in Bamban, Tarlac. Hontiveros had earlier said that She’s files included a dossier on Tony Yang , the eldest brother of Michael Yang.
Tony Yang attended the Senate hearing on November 26 and said through an interpreter that he does not know She and that he had no idea how his information ended up with She. Hontiveros also showed a photo of She with Michael Yang. “It further deepens what we already know — Michael Yang is a key actor in Chinese intelligence operations here,” said Hontiveros.
Duterte had previously described Yang as a crucial link to entice Chinese businesses. TIES. A photo of She Zhijiang (left) and Michael Yang (right) released by Senator Risa Hontiveros.
Michael Yang left the Philippines for Dubai in May, when he was beginning to be investigated by the House quad committee. Economic investments used as fronts The concerns over the ties to Yatai and 9 Dynasty are bolstered by intelligence that Chinese investments have been used as fronts for espionage. “There has been a confluence of the expansion of Chinese economic investment activities, with the expansion of the nexus of espionage and criminal activities,” Ashley Acedillo, Deputy Director General of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), told the Senate on November 26, 2024.
Without declaring that She was involved, Acedillo said that the Philippines had been a target of the so-called APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) groups. Acedillo said these cyber attacks bypass telecommunications towers through pretend cell sites operated by hackers. But our mobile phones are not capable of detecting that these cell sites are not legitimate.
Facing extradition to China, She is trying to peddle his story that he holds valuable information useful to “countries who want to advocate for peace,” Wang Fu Gui, who is the files custodian of She, told the Senate. Wang said that She’s files contain information on APT and more. “APT is just a small portion of the many more information within Mr.
She, I apologize if I can only give you the minimum information,” Wang told the Senate through an interpreter. Doubling down Hontiveros also sounded the alarm that Ong is a member of an association based in the Philippines that, according to her, “is part of the united front work of the Communist Party of China.” This comes after the joint force of the Department of Justice and Bureau of Immigration caught a man they called a Chinese spy who embedded himself in the Philippines for more than a decade, and obtained a permanent residence status via marriage to a Filipina.
Operatives said the man was caught with an equipment powerful enough it can take data remotely from a device without taking hold of it. During the hearing, Hontiveros asked, “Do you think it should disqualify an applicant from Filipino citizenship if he is a member of a group that could possibly be involved in malign foreign influence?” “He has no association with the Communist Party of China or even if there is a Communist Party of the Philippines right now,” said Tolentino. Hontiveros has called on the Senate to deny Ong Filipino citizenship.
Hontiveros’ efforts complement those of her counterparts at the House of Representatives quad committee, who recommended that charges be filed against Chinese businessmen in Pampanga who own the warehouse where seized shabu was found. In a statement on January 20, the National Security Council urged Congress to “prioritize the passage of the amendments to the Espionage Act as well as the Countering Foreign Interference and Malign Influence bill.” – Rappler.
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