To prevent another Guo stunt

When it rains, it pours, as one popular adage goes. This seems to be what ousted Bamban mayor Alice Leal Guo (a.k.a. Guo Hua Ping) feels after being suspended and who is now being dismissed from office. She was initially implicated in the string of illegal and criminal activities of one Philippine online gaming operator (POGO) located in her once sleepy town in Tarlac. 

On May 24 this year, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) filed administrative complaints against Guo and 12 other Bamban town officials before the Office of the Ombudsman. It turned out the POGO’s license from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) had expired already. Guo was accused of issuing permits to Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc., later taken over by Zun Yuan Technology despite expired PAGCOR licenses.

Accompanied by a battery of lawyers, Guo attended the public hearing of the joint Senate inquiry into the reported illegal operations of POGOs on May 7 and on May 22. However, she decided to skip subsequent Senate hearings, citing physical and mental health issues, among other reasons. Likewise, she cited the preventive suspension she was facing at that time and the letter authority served by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on her businesses as well as the criminal complaint still being readied against her by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), among others.

In an order dated May 31, the ombudsman found sufficient grounds to suspend Guo and Bamban licensing chief Edwin Ocampo, as well as municipal legal officer Aden Sigua “considering that there is strong evidence showing their guilt.” The ombudsman issued a six-month preventive suspension against Guo et.al. for grave misconduct, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and gross neglect of duty.

Then on June 21, the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) and the PAOCC filed “qualified human trafficking” charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Guo et.al. This was after the PAOCC-led raid in March at the Bamban POGO compound rescued a number of kidnapping and physically abused foreign nationals working inside the online scam hub.

On July 5, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) filed a petition before a Tarlac court to cancel as “fake” Guo’s certificate of live birth. Weeks later, the OSG filed a quo warranto petition  against Guo to formally remove her from office.

In a resolution issued on July 10 this year, the Court of Appeals issued a freeze order on the 36 bank accounts of the suspended mayor after finding probable cause that they are related to unlawful activities in the Bamban POGO and/or part of money laundering schemes.

On July 11, Senate President Francis Escudero signed the arrest order against Guo, who has gone into hiding. She was ordered arrested “for unduly refusing to appear, despite due notices,” at the Senate committee hearing on reports on human trafficking, torture, serious illegal detention and other serious crimes committed at the Bamban POGO hub.

In the same month, the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the fingerprints of Guo matched those of Chinese citizen Guo Hua Ping. The two are one and the same person.

On Aug. 6, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) approved the recommendation of its law department to file an election code complaint against the Bamban mayor.

On Aug. 12, Ombudsman Samuel Martires dismissed Guo and perpetually disqualified her from holding public office and ordered the forfeiture of all her retirement benefits.

Two days later, the BIR filed before the DOJ a tax evasion complaint against Guo and two other individuals allegedly linked to the Baofu Land Development Inc. Testifying under oath during the first Senate hearing she attended, Guo disclosed the transfer of her shares in Baofu, the property developer that owns the land where both Hongsheng and Zun Yuan are located, to Jack Uy, a co-accused in the case. It was based on her own sworn testimony at the Senate where she admitted she did not file or pay the capital gains tax and documentary stamp tax worth P500,000 in connection with this transfer.

Up to now, the whereabouts of ousted mayor Guo remains a mystery.

Guo’s “disappearing act” added her to the growing list of “most wanted” persons of the police and other law enforcement authorities. She joined the likes of former Corrections Bureau chief Gerald Bantag and Kingdom of Jesus Christ founder Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who both continue to elude capture.

Speaking through her lawyers, Guo finally sent word she is still very much around in the Philippines. In fact, her lawyers filed her counter-affidavit last week at the DOJ. In her defense, Guo decried the human trafficking complaint against her was a “politically motivated smear campaign” linking her to the illegal POGO in Bamban and swore she had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Actually, Guo’s lawyers failed to submit on time their client’s counter-affidavit. The DOJ prosecutors already submitted for resolution the case after Guo failed to appear in its three preliminary hearings. Thus, the DOJ refused to extend the deadline. But her lawyers are now asking the DOJ to re-open its investigation and to admit the counter-affidavit of their client.

On her latest case of “misrepresentation” of her certificate of candidacy (COC) during the May 2022 local elections, the Comelec agreed last week to order a preliminary investigation. Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia told us in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last week Guo would be given a chance to explain her side.

Unless a court has ruled “with finality” that an aspiring candidate has been guilty of violating election laws, Garcia conceded Guo may still be able to file her COC for the coming May 2025 local and national elections. To prevent another Guo stunt, Garcia announced the Comelec will publish all COCs filed to allow anyone to contest or question them at the poll body before the official bets are printed in the ballots.