Alice Guo pleads not guilty to first of 4 pending charges

Dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo at the resumption of the Senate hearing on Pogo hub on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Dismissed Mayor Alice Guo pleaded not guilty to charges of qualified human trafficking before a Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Friday in connection with her alleged involvement with a leasing company that dealt with a Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) in Bamban, Tarlac.

The online arraignment before RTC Branch 167 was in relation to her alleged involvement in the illegal activities of Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc., that was raided by authorities last year, and which discovered more than 800 alleged victims of human trafficking, almost half of which were foreign nationals.

Nicole Jamilla, one of Guo’s lawyers, insisted on Guo’s innocence.

“She really has no involvement in trafficking. That, without going into further details, because we might get into sub judice, but on the part of our client, she is firm that she is not guilty of the crime being accused of her,” Jamilla said.

Legal nightmare

Last week, the Pasig court ordered the Philippine National Police to transfer Guo from their headquarters in Camp Crame to Pasig City Jail Female Dormitory, Bureau of Jail and Management Penology located at Nagpayong, Barangay Pinagbuhatan in Pasig.

The charges filed against her are also nonbailable but Stephen David, another lawyer of Guo, told the Inquirer on Friday through a text message that they filed a petition to allow her to post bail on Thursday.

Guo is also facing graft and corruption charges before Valenzuela RTC Branch 282, which was transferred from the Tarlac RTC Branch 109.

She is also facing a quo warranto case before a Manila court, arguing her ineligibility to hold public office for being a Chinese citizen after the National Bureau of Investigation found that her fingerprints matched that of a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping.

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A money laundering complaint was also filed against her before the Department of Justice last month for allegedly hiding her financial involvement in the 8 hectares of land of the Baofu compound, which housed the Pogo Hongsheng (now known as Zun Yuan Technology Inc.)

Guo was apprehended in Indonesia by local police in early September after she fled the Philippines in July when she was the subject of several hearings in the Senate for her alleged involvement in the Pogo industry and her alleged Chinese nationality.