By: Pauline Ritchel Ramos
Photo from: Inquirer.net
Senator Risa Hontiveros has called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reject a bill granting Philippine citizenship to Chinese national Li Duan Wang on Jan. 28, because of his alleged connections to offshore gambling financiers and a Chinese spy who is presently being held in Thailand.
The Senate had voted 19-1 in support of the bill giving Wang naturalized Filipino status the day before Hontiveros made his call. Rep. Juliet Marie Ferrer of Negros Occidental and Rep. Joey Salceda of Albay wrote the bill, House Bill No. 8839, which Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino backed.
According to Hontiveros, one of Wang's companies is purportedly connected to Yatai Spa, a Pasay City-based firm run by She Zhijiang, a Chinese national who is presently being held in Thailand after claiming to be a Chinese spy.
“The president should immediately veto the bill granting Filipino citizenship to Chinese national Li Duan Wang.” Hontiveros said in a statement on Tuesday.“If the president truly wants the Pogo ban to be effective, I hope people who are close associates of big-time Pogo actors should not be allowed to become Filipinos.” she added.
Unlike previous naturalization bills, this measure did not provide any justification for Wang’s application.
“Li Duan Wang is hereby granted Philippine citizenship with all the rights, privileges, and prerogatives, as well as the duties and obligations appurtenant thereto, under the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of the Philippines,” the bill states.
Hontiveros expressed alarm about Wang's purported connections to Duanren Wu, a Chinese criminal who is suspected of funding a Pogo hub connected to Alice Guo, the ex-Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
Additionally, Wu is said to have been a co-owner of Whirlwind Corp., which purchased property for a second offshore gambling complex in Porac, Pampanga.
In order to avoid prosecution and a Senate probe into crimes connected to Pogo, authorities believe Wu helped Guo and her friends flee to Indonesia last year.
“I do not judge Li Duan Wang as guilty of any crime, but these red flags are enough to prevent him from being granted Filipino citizenship so easily,” Hontiveros said during a Senate session on Monday.
“In my firm belief, what the government should do is investigate Li Duan Wang, not pass a law to treat him as one of us,” she stressed.
With the bill awaiting Marcos approval, Hontiveros has intensified her call for a thorough investigation into Wang’s background rather than granting him Filipino citizenship.