Hontiveros: Guo has ties with criminals

BY RAYMOND AFRICA and VICTOR REYES

SENATE deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday revealed that controversial Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo has ties with criminals who were her fellow incorporators at Baofu Land Development Inc., a company where she had a 50 percent stake.

Citing documents submitted by Baofu to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2019, Hontiveros said the company’s incorporators included Guo, a Filipino; Rachel Joan Malonzo Carreon, also a Filipino; Zhiyang Huang, a Cypriot citizen; Zhang Ruijin, a Chinese; and Baoying Lin, a Dominican

Republic citizen.

Hontiveros said that based on their research, Zhang Ruijin was convicted last month of the reported “largest money laundering case in Singapore.”

She said that according to a report by Channel News Asia, Zhang Ruijin has “$41 million in assets overseas, including shareholdings in a Philippine real estate development company.”
She said Baoying Lin also faces charges in the same case.

Guo had earlier said that she divested her interests in Baofu before she ran in the 2022 elections.

Baofu Land Development leased its 7.9-hectare property to Philippine offshore gaming operator Zun Yuan Technology which was raided by authorities last month.

“Even if she had divested from Baofu before she ran in the elections, the fact remains she has ties with these criminals. Did she run as mayor to protect her friends? I am looking forward to our hearing on Wednesday. I hope the mayor did not lose her memory,” Hontiveros said, adding Guo has many red flags.

“Is this why she was able to afford her lavish lifestyle? Galing ba sa mga kriminal at pugante ang pambili niya ng chopper at mga luxury cars? (Did the money she used to buy a chopper and luxury cars come from criminals and fugitives?),” she added.

She also welcomed the move of the Department of the Interior and Local Government to strip Guo of her powers over the local police.

“The mayor should not have access to the police if she is a protector of criminals,” Hontiveros said.

The Senate Committee on Women chaired by Hontiveros is scheduled to conduct another hearing today, Wednesday, on the human trafficking and cyber scamming activities of the