Photos of ex-PNP chief with POGO players stir controversy

National

FORMER Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Benjamin Acorda Jr. is in hot water after a photo of him with some individuals linked to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) was publicized.

During the resumption of the Senate hearing on POGOs on Tuesday, September 24, Sen. Risa Hontiveros showed photos of Acorda and Yang Jian Xin also known as Tony Yang with two other personalities.

Yang is the elder brother of Michael Yang, a businessman and a former economic adviser of then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

Upon presenting the photo during the hearing, the lady senator asked Yang to give details of the photo and who are their companions.

Yang answered with an interpreter saying they just came to visit Acorda at that time when the latter was still the police chief in Cagayan de Oro city. He admitted that he had known Acorda for a long time already.

During the hearing, Yang admitted that he’s a Chinese national as he was born in China and that his birth certificate was fake.

He confessed that his grandfather helped him with his birth certificate and eventually moved to the Philippines and started their business in Cagayan de Oro.

According to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Yang’s steel plant Philippine Steel Corporation is under the agency’s watch for being suspected as an illegal POGO hub.

“So in relation to the photos I talked to you about, I really wonder what our high officials in government are doing fraternizing with the wanted fugitive” Hontiveros said.

Hontiveros asked Yang if he was aware that he had a warrant of arrest in China due to financing scamming, but the Chinese national denied having an idea about it.

In response to the photos bared during the hearing, Acorda told reporters that he loves his country and the police organization.

“Masasabi ko lang, I love my country and the PNP organization. Kung anong dapat gawin ng isang Pilipino at bilang police officer ay ginawa ko,” Acorda replied to reporters as per Inquirer.net.

Hontiveros, who chairs the Committee on Women, Children, and Family Affairs, invited Acorda to the next hearing to explain his side of the new revelations, especially with his photo together with personalities involved in POGO.(LAO)