Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero has signed an arrest warrant on suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Leal Guo/Guo Hua Ping , her three siblings and parents and two others, who have snubbed Senate hearings investigating illegal Philippine Online Gaming Operators (Pogos) and the serious crimes associated with them. Also covered by the arrest warrant are her siblings Seimen, Sheila and Wesley Guo; and her parents Wenyi Lin and Jian Zhing Guo. The Senate sergeant at arms has deployed teams to enforce the order.
The nonrelatives covered by the arrest order are former government executive Dennis Cunanan and Nancy Gamo, believed to have facilitated most of the paper work for the companies used in the illegal Pogo hub in Tarlac. Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, earlier cited in contempt the eight people, on motion by Senators Jinggoy Escudero and Sherwin Gatchalian, and seconded by Nancy Binay.
The citation led to Escudero’s issuance of the arrest warrants. In a statement, Hontiveros said, “The issuance of the arrest order is only the first step to making Mayor Alice Guo or Guo Hua Ping accountable to our laws,” referring to the Chinese name of the embattled mayor, as ferreted out by an NBI fingerprint expert who compared the prints of the mayor and Guo Hua Ping, listed earlier as a dependent of a Chinese holder of a Philippine investoir visa. Hontiveros, meanwhile, also signed a subpoena ad testificandum against Jaimielyn S.
Cruz to appear before the Senate on July 29, for a hearing on the crimes associated with the illegal Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac. The arrest order and subpoena were signed a day after the Court of Appeals, granting a petition by the Antimoney Laundering Council (AMLC), froze the assets of Guo and other individuals and entities after finding probable cause that they are related to unlawful activity and/or money laundering pursuant to Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) of 2001. The AMLC had said the freeze order, issued last July 10, 2024 by the CA, covers several assets, including 90 bank accounts across 14 financial institutions, several real properties, and high-value personal properties, such as luxury vehicles and a helicopter.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission earlier filed a qualified human trafficking case against Guo and 13 others in connection with the illegal activities of a Pogo in her town. The Philippine Statistics Office, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), also sought the cancellation of Guo’s birth certificate before a court in Tarlac on the ground, among others, of failure to comply with the legal requirements for late registration. All these actions came following extensive investigation and joint operations led by the Presidential Anti-organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) on Pogo hubs in Bamban.
Aside from Guo, the individuals covered by the freeze order are Zhiyang Huang, and Baoying Lin. “These individuals are suspected of orchestrating human trafficking and fraudulent activities through entities such as Zun Yuan Technology Inc., BAOFU Land Development Inc.
, and Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc.,” the AMLC said. “The investigation uncovered significant financial transactions and assets amassed by these individuals as well as their involvement in money laundering, human trafficking, and other illicit operations,” it added.
The AMLC said the illicit activities linked to these individuals and entities include the operation of an unauthorized POGO at Zun Yuan Technology Inc. It was discovered that the company was engaged in various illegal activities under the guise of POGO operations, including human trafficking, serious illegal detention, and online scam schemes. “These operations were conducted within the premises of BAOFU Land Development Inc.
, which housed numerous workers, including trafficked individuals, who were forced to participate in fraudulent online activities,” the AMLC said..
