Michael Yang
Yang Hongming (Chinese: 杨鸿明; born 1976), commonly known as Michael Yang in the Philippines, is a Chinese businessman who is an associate of Rodrigo Duterte, the 16th president of the Philippines. From 2016 to 2018, Yang served as president Duterte's economic adviser both informally and formally despite being constitutionally barred from holding a Philippine cabinet position. In 2020, Yang was linked in the Pharmally scandal which allegedly overpriced procurement contracts for medical supplies to be used by the Philippine government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A native of Fujian, China, Yang moved to Davao City in the late 1990s. He became acquainted with Duterte in 1999 after requesting his permission to establish the Davao City Los Amigos (DCLA) mall in the city. In the 2000s, Yang established the real estate company Yangtze River Group in Davao, and by the 2010s was named chairman of the Full Win Group based in Xiamen, Fujian. By 2019, Yang and his business partners in Pharmally headed Paili Holding, a firm that constructed buildings for Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO), and sometime after 2021, Yang was listed as co-owner of a property in Emirates Hills, Dubai that was purchased by his Pharmally business partner Lin Weixiong (Allan Lim).
Since his tenure as economic adviser was revealed in 2018, Yang's discreet position in the Duterte administration has been questioned and criticized, with him being denounced for his role in the proliferation of POGOs in the Philippines. He has since been accused of being involved in the country's illegal drug trade, with critics of Duterte alleging that the Philippine drug war was carried out in order to benefit a Davao City drug syndicate linked to Yang and Duterte. Yang departed from the Philippines in May 2024, heading to the United Arab Emirates.
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