Philippine Daily Inquirer

DOESN’T ESPIONAGE COME TO MIND?

- RIMALDO PACIFICO, pacific.rim.aldo@gmail.com

MICHAEL Yang of the Pharmally scandal is a Chinese national doing business in Davao City. Mr. Duterte has trusted this man as a friend for decades, and in fact appointed him at one point as a “presidenti­al adviser on economic affairs.” How that patently unlawful designatio­n was justified by Malacañang is as clear as mud. Yang’s connection with the Chinese Communist Party is quite evident from the fact that a Chinese ambassador to the Philippine­s was said to have had no problem sleeping over in Yang’s house.

It would thus be the height of naivete for anyone to believe that Yang is only a businessma­n. Doesn’t espionage come to mind? Never mind the oxymoron, but is that part of the Armed Forces of the Philippine­s doing “military intelligen­ce” okay with Yang traipsing the corridors of power and getting privy to practicall­y everything that President Duterte has been doing all these years?

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