The Senator’s bombshell report dropped a day before the scheduled Senate hearing on Wednesday.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, May 21, Senator Risa Hontiveros said that controversial Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo allegedly “has ties with criminals.”
“Kasama niya sa Baofu, dating kumpanya niya, ay sina Zhang Ruijin at Baoying Lin na arestado sa “largest money laundering case” sa Singapore.”
Elaborating further, “…Baofu’s 2019 Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents, incorporators included Mayor Guo, Filipino national Rachel Joan Malonzo Carreon, Cypriot national Zhiyang Huang, Chinese national Zhang Ruijin, and Dominican national Baoying Lin.”
Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Comittee on Women, Children, Family, and Gender Equality, noted that Chinese national Zhang Ruijin was convicted due to his link in what is touted as the “largest money laundering case in Singapore.”
Zhang was sentenced to 15 months in jail by the Singaporean state court in April 2024.
Citing a report by Singaporean news network CNA, Zhang Ruijin reportedly has a total of “$41 million in assets overseas, including shareholdings in a Philippine real estate development company.”
Similarly, Zhang’s “domestic partner” and Dominican national Baoying Lin, is currently facing 10 charges in Singapore, as of Tuesday.
The Senator then asked the Mayor if the “friends” that helped her in her candidacy in 2022 were the same people involved or charged with the crimes abroad.
“Ayon mismo kay Mayor [Guo], tinulungan daw siya ng mga kaibigan niya para makatakbo sa eleksyon nung 2022, Itong mga kriminal at puganteng kaibigan ba ang sinasabi niya?”
Hontiveros continued by asking if Guo’s motive to run for the local position was to “protect her friends?”
“Kahit pa sabihin niyang nag-divest na siya sa Baofu bago tumakbo, the fact remains: she has ties with these criminals. Kaya ba siya tumakbong Mayor para maprotektahan niya ang mga kaibigan niya?”
In a separate post, Hontiveros said that she is “looking forward to our hearing tomorrow.” and wishes that Guo “remembers” the details.
“Sana naman may maalala na si Mayor,” the Senator said.
Hontiveros and Guo will meet each other anew in the Senate hearing on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) hacking and surveillance in Tarlac, which will hapoen on Wednesday, May 22.
BAOFU
In an interview with ABS-CBN news anchor Karen Davila on Monday, May 20, Mayor Guo confirmed anew that she used to be an incorporator of Baofu, which owns the more than 7-hectare land located behind the Bamban Municipal Hall.
“Negosyo ko po farming, it so happened po na nabili ko ‘yung lupa [na] kung saan nakatayo ‘yung Baofu ngayon.”
Guo also disclosed that she acquired the lot for Php 700 per square meter in 2018, which she paid on an installment basis.
Albeit, she said that she had divested her stake in Baofu prior to running, and eventually winning, as the mayor of Bamban.
Guo stated that she sold her share in 2022 to a certain Filipino named Jack Uy, who was introduced by a group of Chinese individuals.
POGOs IN BAMBAN
It was soon after her acquisition of the plot of land in 2018 that she said she met certain businessmen operating a restaurant in Clark, Pampanga, which she first approached to occupy the area.
When the first group was already in the process of developing the site, it was when the first POGO company Hong Sheng entered the frame to lease the building space, Mayor Guo stated.
“Noong mag-re-rent na po sa kanila, in-introduce ko po si Hong Sheng doon sa former mayor [of Bamban]. Kung meron po na mga questions na ‘di niya masagot, ako [ang] mag-translate.”
Guo said that her participation was only for Hong Sheng to get the “letter of no objection” (LONO) from the town’s then-Mayor, which she earlier said, and that she had not been part of the company’s operations.
But Davila brought out a resolution from the municipal government, which listed Alice Guo’s name — thereby, in effect, making her the applicant for the license or permit of the POGO.
“Wala naman pong record na magsasabi na nag-apply ako. In-introduce ko lang po sila… at afterwards po ay ‘di ko na rin po nabigyan ng pansin [‘yung] nakalagay na representative,” before reiterating that she only helped the company get a LONO.
However, her name Alice Guo was written in the said resolution.
In 2023, authorities raided Hong Sheng and it was discovered to have held 500 Filipinos and 300 foreign nationals captive in an apparent human trafficking activity and operations of a cryptocurrency scam.
Meanwhile, in March 2024, a second company Zun Yuan Technology was busted by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crimes Commission (PAOCC), which also revealed their alarming human trafficking activities, on top of their scamming operations.
On her stance about POGOs, Mayor Alice Guo says that she is now “against” after the raids in Bamban, specifically the Baofu site in 2023 and 2024.
“As long as ako po ang Mayor, I will no longer allow any POGO operation in my town,” she added.
Explaining why she had allowed the entry of Zun Yuan even after the raid of Hong Sheng in 2023: “Before po… noong humingi po ang Zun Yuan ng LONO (letter of no objections) doon sa mga konsehal ko po, ang paliwanag po nila sa akin ay: “Mayora, trabaho.””
“Second-class municipality lang po kami [at] ang mga kababayan namin ay kailangan ng trabaho. [So,] sinabi ko po doon sa mga konsehal: “As long as mayroon pong lisensya ng PAGCOR, papayag ako. Kapag walang lisensya ng PAGCOR, never again.”
Mayor Alice says that she granted the permit to Zun Yuan as the company obtained a permit from gambling authority PAGCOR.
On whether she has ever visited the compound as mayor, Guo shared that she never stepped foot on it over fears of it becoming a “conflict of interest.”
Instead, she sent out her team to visit and inspect the site, citing that there was even one conducted “a week or two” prior to the PAOCC raid of Zun Yuan.
As for the benefits reaped by the town over the investment of these POGOs, Mayor Guo shared that these provided employment to some 200 people in her municipality and an estimated tax collection of Php 15 million for the first quarter of 2024 — which was supposed to be paid in late March by Zun Yuan.
Meanwhile, she also said that over the course of the operations of the POGOs in Bamban, the town’s police had never received any reports about any illegal activities, which she says she would have responded to should they have reached her office.
Trendrod 