The Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) has filed a petition to freeze over P792 million worth of assets of a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) in the town of Bamban linked to illegal activities, including money laundering and human trafficking.
“We have frozen in peso equivalent a total of 251 million plus. There were also assets that we’ve frozen, real properties amounting to almost P465 million, for motor vehicles P76 million,” said AMLC Deputy Director Adrian Arpon.
“For civil forfeiture we have already filed. For the criminal case for money laundering, we are in coordination with the different law enforcement agencies, and we are expecting to file the first batch of money laundering cases hopefully within the week,” Arpon added.
Dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo was believed to have escaped to China.
Guo and her associates were subjects of a manhunt after both the Senate and the House of Representatives ordered their arrest for their refusal to attend the hearings on the illegal activities of POGOs.
Her siblings, Shiela and Wesley, were said to have fled by sea from Zambales and then through the country’s porous backdoor before reaching Sabah, Malaysia, in the middle of July.
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Shiela Guo, sister of fugitive ex-Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, appears before a hearing presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, inside the Philippine Senate in Pasay City, on Aug. 27, 2024. PHOTO BY MIKE ALQUINTO
Sheila was arrested by Indonesian authorities in Batam on August 20, together with the Guos’ business associate Cassandra Ong.
Ong has been identified as the representative of Lucky South 99, an illegal POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga. She was the woman who allegedly hired former Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr. as a lawyer for Whirlwind, the real estate firm that had leased its land to Lucky South.
Sheila was deported to Manila. She made her first appearance at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Sen. Ronald de la Rosa reprimanded Shiela for giving an unclear account of her sister’s departure from the Philippines.
“It’s obvious that you are lying. Don’t try to fool us. Do you think you can also do the same as Alice Guo did on the committee? You didn’t even ask your sister why you were on a banca (motorboat) and why you were traveling at night. Now, you tell us that you didn’t even know you were leaving the country? Tell it to the marines,” de la Rosa, a former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said in Filipino.
During the hearing, NBI Director Jimmy Santiago said that theoretically, the Guos likely boarded a speed boat in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, heading to Sabah. He added that there is a port in Bongao, but the Guos did not go through immigration because they did not possess valid passports.
Immigration presented a similar theory.
“They allegedly deliberately evaded immigration inspection by leaving on board a small boat from a resort somewhere north, then transferred to a bigger boat. She then said that from the bigger boat, they transferred to another small boat and went straight to Sabah,” Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros requested Tansingco to provide the timeline of actions taken by the Bureau of Immigration concerning Alice’s escape from the Philippines.
Tansingco said the bureau received information on Guo’s escape from the PNP on August 15, four days before Hontiveros delivered her privilege speech seeking the cancellation of Alice’s passport, but finished validating the data on August 19 to 20.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said it was crucial to examine weaknesses in the law that made it possible for the Guos to slip out of the country and evade arrest.
“We really want to get to the bottom of the issue because this is a big blow to our country’s reputation, and we don’t want it to happen again,” Pimentel said.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo cited a National Bureau of Investigation report showing that 1,200 birth certificates issued to Chinese came from Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur. He said that the BI intercepted some Chinese who attempted to come in and leave the country using Philippine passports.
“It is very obvious that we have an immigration crisis, a clear and present danger to our national security. How many more Alice Guos are there in our country today, perhaps holding a low-profile position in our government and private institutions, low profile positions but sensitive and important positions,” he said.
“This is really a serious national security issue [that] may be part of a sleeper cell from an enemy country,” Tulfo added, noting the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, or the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines should dig deeper into the matter.
‘No sacred cows’
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday said he has a “very good idea” whose heads will roll over Guo’s escape.
Marcos said he discussed the matter with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
“He’s (Remulla) almost finished with a very thorough investigation, and we will identify all of those who have, all of those who are involved in this, and we will act very quickly,” he said.
Marcos assured the public that there would be no sacred cows in the government’s probe on the issue.
“That’s the last part of this investigation — how far, how deep does this go? Is there only one person involved or many, or is it a syndicate? That’s what we’re looking for. There are no sacred cows,” he said.
WITH CATHERINE S. VALENTE, JAVIER JOE ISMAEL, AND FRANCO JOSE C. BAROÑA
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