BEFORE THE GRILLING STARTED Alice Guo (right) laughs while Whirlwind Corp. incorporator Cassandra Ong (left) does a face palm when lawmakers ask the former Bamban mayor whether she saw Ong exchange sweet looks with her boyfriend, Wesley, Guo’s brother. —LYN RILLON
MANILA, Philippines — After spending two weeks in detention at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, dismissed Bamban, Tarlac, Mayor Alice Guo was ordered transferred to the Pasig City jail after a Pasig court released an arrest warrant and commitment order against her for qualified human trafficking, a nonbailable offense.
The order, issued by Presiding Judge Annielyn Medes-Cabelis of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Thursday, directed the PNP to bring her to the female dormitory of the Pasig City jail in Barangay Pinagbuhatan.
The order was yet to be carried out as of late Friday night.
READ: Alice Guo posts P540,000 bail for graft raps in Valenzuela court
The charges against Guo and her 15 coaccused in Criminal Case No. R-PSG-24-02544-CR stems from the February 2023 raid on Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc., a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) in Bamban, Tarlac, where more than 800 suspected victims of human trafficking, at least 350 of them foreigners, were rescued.
“All the accused in these cases are not entitled to post bail as the charges against them are all nonbailable,” Medes-Cabelis said in the order.
The court also ordered the transfer of one of Guo’s coaccused, Walter Wong Long, from the Tarlac provincial jail in Tarlac City to the Pasig City jail male dormitory.
Corresponding warrants of arrest, according to the court, will be issued against the other accused. They are Huang Zhiyang, Rachelle Joan Malonzo Carreon, Zhang Ruijin, Baoying Lin, Yu Zheng Can, Dennis Lacson Cunanan, Jamielyn Santos Cruz, Roderick Paul Bernardo Pujante, Juan Miguel Alpas, Merlie Joy Manalo Castro, Rita Sapnu Yturralde, Rowena Gonzales Evangelista, Thelma Barrogo Laranan, and Maybelline Requiro Millo.
Reached by the Inquirer on Friday, lawyer Stephen David, Guo’s counsel, said: “It’s sad but life goes on for Mayor Alice Guo. Everything happens for a reason.”
In a message to the Inquirer on Friday, Jayrex Bustinera, spokesperson for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), said Guo would stay in a cell with 40 other female inmates.
“The ideal capacity of this facility, based on our standard, is 36,” Bustinera said.
The female dormitory, according to him, currently holds 135 inmates.
He said Guo was supposed to be detained in an isolation cell, “however, we have current TB (tuberculosis) patients [there] right now.”
“Of course no VIP treatment. That is an established BJMP policy,” he added.
Guo, who was linked to illegal Pogo activities in her town, was arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sept. 4 and was flown back to the country on Sept. 6 accompanied by Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and PNP chief Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil. The dismissed mayor, who fled the Philippines on July 18, had been cited in contempt by a Senate panel investigating crimes linked to Pogo hubs due to her failure to attend its hearings.
READ: Ex-PNP chief allegedly took bribe to help Alice Guo, siblings flee PH
READ: Alice Guo, siblings gave ‘P200-M’ bribe to leave PH – Hontiveros
Guo is also facing graft and corruption charges before the Valenzuela RTC Branch 282, a case transferred from the Tarlac RTC Branch 109.
She is also facing a quo warranto case before a Manila court that challenged her eligibility to hold public office due to her nationality. Documents presented in the Senate hearings, which were verified by the National Bureau of Investigation, claimed that Guo is a Chinese citizen known as Guo Hua Ping.
Ong to Mandaluyong
Meanwhile, the House quad committee has cited anew Whirlwind Corp. incorporator Cassandra Li Ong in contempt, this time making good on its threat to send her to the Mandaluyong City’s women correctional facility for dodging lawmakers’ questions about her assets and educational background.
Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Paduano, the panel’s cochair, made the motion to transfer Ong to Mandaluyong during their sixth hearing into the alleged links between the illegal drug trade, Pogos and extrajudicial killings.
Paduano said Ong had lied about having a pending money laundering case, using it as grounds for invoking her right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions about her transactions with Lucky South 99 and Whirlwind Corp.
This is the second time that Ong was cited in contempt by the lawmakers, the first being on Aug. 29 when she initially tried to invoke her right to be silent to all the panel’s questions, on the advice of her lawyer, Ferdinand Topacio.
She was initially supposed to be detained already in Mandaluyong but the quad committee gave her a chance to cooperate so she could be held at the House detention facilities instead.
Ong claims she is only a majority shareholder for Whirlwind, which leases land to the raided Pogo hub in Porac, Pampanga. Her business partner and godfather, Duanren Wu, owns 20 percent.
However, she represented Lucky South 99, along with former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, in a June 2023 meeting with Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. Chair Al Tengco to discuss Lucky South 99’s arrears.
During the quad committee hearing on Thursday, Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez revealed that Ong had 11 bank accounts which held almost P198 million.
Ong was unable to specify the number of bank accounts she owned during the previous hearings.
When confronted by Fernandez, Ong refused to answer or confirm these statements, invoking her right against self-incrimination because of a pending money laundering case against her.
Deputy City Prosecutor Benjamin Samson disclosed that a money laundering case had yet to be filed against Ong.
There is, however, a case filed by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, NBI and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, against Alice Guo which includes Ong as a co-respondent.
This case is still at the preliminary investigation stage at the Department of Justice.