Palace: PEZA ordered to do background check on Taiwanese 'fugitive swindler'

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has been tasked to look into the background of a potential investor that the Taiwan government tagged as an “economic criminal, ” Malacañang said on Thursday.

“Right now, they are doing their due diligence,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a briefing in Malacañang.

“PEZA is, I , under the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] and that should be ... and they’re also doing their due diligence to make sure that… And they have been, I think, being given the directive to make sure that ... to study, to investigate. Not investigate but to check into the background of the said potential investor,” he added.

The Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office on Wednesday asked the Philippines to deport You Hao Chen to Taiwan after PEZA announced his Xianglu Dragon Group was planning to develop a 3,000-hectare economic zone in Pangasinan and an 85-storey building in Manila.

“CHEN is a notorious Taiwanese fugitive swindler. CHEN was the former CEO of Tuntex Group in Taiwan. He was prosecuted by the Taiwan Taipei District Prosecutors Office on account of fraud, unlawful embezzlement and other serious economic crimes of defrauding more than NTD 800 millions (equivalent to 1.32 billion pesos),” the statement read.

Asked if President Rodrigo Duterte would be inclined to meet Chen and approve his business plans in the Philippines, Abella said that it would depend on the recommendation of his economic managers. — VDS, GMA News