Guo may face human trafficking charges – PAOCC

MANILA, Philippines — The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) has gathered enough evidence to file human trafficking charges against Bamban Mayor Alice Guo over alleged illegal activities at a raided Philippine offshore gaming operator hub in her Tarlac town.

According to PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio, recent documents obtained by the agency could implicate Guo, despite her name not appearing in any documents of Zun Yuan Technologies.

“We have gotten some documents over the past few weeks that we have not yet disclosed in the previous two Senate hearings as well as executive sessions requested by Senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Risa Hontiveros,” Casio said in an interview over ANC on Monday.

He added that upon their appreciation of the evidence that they were able to obtain, “for sure, by this week, we will be able to file human trafficking charges against Mayor Guo and her co-conspirators.”

Casio also mentioned that the PAOCC is considering additional charges related to money laundering and other offenses.

He confirmed last June 15 that the evidence includes documents directly linking Guo to the POGO hub, which was raided in March following reports of human trafficking and other illegal activities.

Officials from the PAOCC and other government agencies will meet Tuesday to finalize the charges, which Casio stated are serious and non-bailable offenses.

The Office of the Ombudsman has suspended Guo and two local government officials for six months while investigating their involvement in the illegal activities at the POGO hub.

Senator Hontiveros yesterday sounded the alarm over a reported link of a former government official convicted and sentenced to a 26-year jail term for his involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam – considered the largest corruption scandal the country has ever seen – to POGO operations.

Hontiveros vowed to summon at the next hearing convicted former Technology and Resource Center deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, whose name cropped up following the raids on POGOs in Bamban town in Tarlac and Porac town in Pampanga.

“We will invite Mr. Cunanan to the next hearing to clarify his involvement.