Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz shares this undated photo, which, he says , shows dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with members of the media on Thursday, August 22, 2024. —Photo from PAOCC Usec. Gilbert Cruz
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian on Saturday urged the alleged sister of Alice Guo and their business associate to come clean and identify the masterminds of the illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) that the sacked mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, helped to set up.
Shiela Guo, who has been identified as Chinese national Zhang Mier, and Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, were apprehended by Indonesian authorities on Aug. 22 and sent back to Manila on the same day from Batam, Indonesia, which Guo and her siblings had visited after she fled the Philippines where she is facing criminal charges.
READ: Sheila Guo, Cassandra Ong back in PH after arrest in Indonesia
“It would be better for them to just tell the truth,” Gatchalian said in an interview with dwIZ radio. “They should understand that it’s now already very clear what had happened and the cases against them are strong. They should explain and tell all.”
“We just want to locate the masterminds and make them liable,” the senator said.
Relations now doubted
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Shiela Guo was carrying a Chinese passport in the name of Zhang Mier and the National Bureau of Investigation said their fingerprints matched, indicating that they were the same person.
Winston Casio, spokesperson for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said they had reason to believe that she may be a half-sister of the dismissed Bamban mayor “at best” or a cousin or distant relative “at worst.”
“They are not full blood siblings. That we could be certain of,” Casio said during a media forum on Saturday.
Gatchalian said she played a “very important role” in the Pogo business that Guo had been linked to.
“In most of the companies owned by the Guo family, she was an officer and stockholder,” he told Senate reporters earlier.
Doing gov’t a favor
It was Gatchalian who first raised the possibility that Guo was behind Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc., which later changed its business name to Zun Yuan Technology Inc., the operator of the sprawling Pogo hub located just behind the Bamban municipal hall.
Zun Yuan was raided by PAOCC and shut down in March this year.
The senator said Ong was an executive of Lucky South 99 Outsourcing Inc., the Pogo complex in Porac, Pampanga, which was raided also by PAOCC in June.
According to Gatchalian, Shiela Guo and Ong would do the government a favor by not only disclosing Guo’s current location, but also identifying the “masterminds” who had financed the Pogo hubs that were allegedly used for online scams and other criminal activities.
Name protectors, too
He said the pair should also disclose how they were able to slip out of the country and who helped them secure their fraudulent birth certificates and Philippine passports.
Like Guo and her three siblings, authorities believe that Ong is also a Chinese citizen.
“We will also know from Shiela and Ong the names of government officials who helped them and became their cohorts in operating Pogos, and those who financed the Pogos in Bamban and Porac that became the hotbed of criminalities,” Gatchalian added.
The information that he and Sen. Risa Hontiveros had exposed in a series of hearings on illegal Pogo activities triggered investigations that unraveled a web of fraudulent schemes that did not only promote online gaming, but also the illegal issuance of birth certificates and other government documents to foreigners.
Gatchalian said the reports that Guo had escaped from the country with the help of Chinese nationals being linked to money laundering cases in Singapore bolstered the suspicions that the disgraced mayor and her family were part of a syndicate involved in transnational crimes.
Casio said Guo might be trying to reach the notorious “Golden Triangle” where her family allegedly runs widespread illegal gambling operations.
“We’re confident that she’s trying to get into the Golden Triangle,” he said. “That would be the safest bet that we have as of this moment.”
The Golden Triangle is a mountainous region bordered by northeastern Myanmar, northwestern Thailand and northern Laos that was once known for opium production. It is now notorious for various criminal activities like money-laundering, cyberscams and wildlife trafficking.
Casio cautioned against an outright cancellation of her Philippine passport, despite being identified by the NBI, also through fingerprint analysis, as a Chinese national who had entered the country as a young girl. He said that it was unlikely that Guo would head to any Chinese territory as she was a “person of interest” in China. On top of that, China has an extradition treaty with the Philippines, Casio added.
“I would caution against their immediate deportation. Why? The People’s Republic of China has a policy that once you cancel your passport and nationality and acquire another nationality and passport, it’s difficult for you to reacquire it. Then what would happen to Alice, Shiela, Wesley et al.? They would become stateless individuals,” Casio said.
The Guo siblings could become “refugees” and fall under the framework of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They could then take on a “different legal character and they would be protected by that legal character,” he said.
No cases have been filed in court against either Guo or any of her siblings, but the Ombudsman had already dismissed her from her office as Bamban mayor for grave misconduct over her “willful attempt to violate the law” in connection with the Bamban Pogo hub. Guo has been charged by PAOCC with qualified human trafficking in the Department of Justice.
Gatchalian said Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco should tell the truth about the BI’s decision to withhold the information on Guo’s escape from President Marcos and Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.