Guo gets life sentence for Pogo-linked trafficking
Alice Guo, the former mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, who was found to be a Chinese national at the center of criminal activities involving Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), was sentenced on Thursday to life imprisonment for organizing and directing a web of associates to commit human trafficking.
Senators who led the investigation into Pogos and Guo’s “criminal empire” involving both Filipinos and Chinese citizens hailed the decision as a victory against transnational crimes.
In an 111-page decision, the Pasig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) found Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of qualified trafficking, and ordered her and her coaccused to pay a P2-million fine each and compensate several trafficking victims, who filed the complaints.
Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Ty said the landmark decision—the country’s first conviction under the expanded antitrafficking law’s provision on “organizing and directing others to commit human trafficking”—could be used in other pending Pogo-related cases. These include the case in Porac, Pampanga, where former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque is implicated.
“That’s our theory so we can implicate people who, even if they were not the ones who physically hurt, recruited, or exploited the trafficking victims themselves, were still involved in establishing the organization where the human trafficking took place and get them convicted,” Ty said in a chance interview in Makati City.
Pogo hub forfeited
The Pasig RTC Branch 167 also convicted Jaimielyn Santos Cruz, Rachelle Malonzo Carreon, and Walter Wong Rong for organizing trafficking activities inside the Baofu compound, where the raided Zun Yuan Technology Pogo hub was located.
The court found Wang Weili, Wuli Dong, Nong Ding Chang, and Lang Xu Po guilty of acts of trafficking committed against the victims. Eight others were acquitted.
The 7.9-hectare property of Baofu Land Development Inc., where the sprawling Pogo hub was built, was ordered forfeited in favor of the government.
Guo and her 15 coaccused did not personally appear during the promulgation of the decision, attending only via videoconference.
Forced labor
The ruling, penned by Presiding Judge Annielyn Medes-Cabelis, detailed how Guo, along with three coaccused who remain at large—Huang Zhiyang, Zhang Ruijin, and Baoying Lin—organized and financed Baofu, then directed others to engage in forced labor in their online scamming business at the Tarlac compound.
The court said Guo and the three fugitives were the beneficial owners of the raided Pogo hubs Hongsheng and Zun Yuan, both located within the Baofu compound.
It cited billings for the entire Baofu compound from 2019 to 2024, which were under Guo’s name and paid using checks she signed, drawn from the bank account of QJJ Genetics, a corporation owned by her family.
The court also discussed how the traffickers took advantage of the complainants’ vulnerabilities, with some victims “deceived and intimidated” by Guo and her cohorts.
Two of the victims, both high school graduates, were enticed to work as customer service representatives for a supposed Pogo company called “Yiheng Co. Ltd.” that offered free board and lodging.
But the company turned out to be Hongsheng/Zun Yuan, which “is not a Pogo company because it did not operate an online gaming business,” the court said.
The ‘hub’
The ruling further elaborated on the conspiracy, identifying Guo, Huang, Zhang and Baoying as the “hub.”
Huang had the expertise to operate the business because he was also a Sun Valley incorporator, a major Pogo firm previously raided by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.
He agreed to form a business venture with Guo in Tarlac, while Zhang and Baoying lived in the same area as Huang and joined the venture.
Three convicted respondents—Carreon, Cruz, and Rong—were described as some of the “spokes.”
The court outlined the series of overt acts, beginning with the hub’s decision to purchase a large parcel of land “as they needed a place to operate their illegal online scamming business and to securely house the trafficked workers from whom they would extract labor to do the scamming job.”
The court noted how Baofu initially faced obstacles because the Constitution requires corporations to be at least 60-percent Filipino-owned. Guo, a Filipino citizen at that time, held only 50 percent, while Huang was Cypriot, Zhang Ruijin was Chinese, and Baoying Lin was Dominican.
Carreon, a high school graduate employed at the QJJ farm, was then used as a “dummy” incorporator with a subscribed share of P125,000 and became Baofu’s corporate secretary “even if she lacked the financial capacity to pay for her subscribed share.”
“Now that Baofu was qualified to be a landholding company, Guo then transferred the 7.9 hectares of land but she did not execute transfer documents,” the court said.
Conspiracy
It detailed how Guo, as Bamban mayor, approved Baofu and Zun Yuan’s business permits despite lacking requirements.
It also noted that she did not revoke Hongsheng’s business permit despite two raids and failed to order an investigation even after receiving a police report that one victim had escaped Zun Yuan and alleged being a victim of human trafficking.
In its ruling, the court ordered Guo and her convicted female coaccused’s transfer to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Earlier in June, a Manila court disqualified Guo from holding a government post after declaring her “undoubtedly a Chinese citizen.” She has denied the allegations and maintained that she was a Filipino citizen.
Giving full weight and credence to the “infallible science of fingerprint examination,” Presiding Judge Liwliwa Hidalgo-Bucu of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 34 granted the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General against Guo after she and Chinese national Guo Hua Ping were proven to be the same person.
Justice served
Senators Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian said justice has been served with Guo’s conviction.
“[I]t is a victory against corruption, human trafficking, cybercrime, and many other transnational crimes. Now they can’t do it again,” said Hontiveros in a statement.
“This makes me feel hopeful about the work we do. But it is far from over. And to all others who enabled Alice Guo’s criminal empire: the Philippines is not a playground for exploitation, infiltration, and espionage. Accountability is coming. Justice always finds a way,” she added.
Gatchalian said the conviction is “a big win” for those who have been victimized by various criminal activities perpetrated by Pogos.
“I’m hoping that this success will further strengthen the country’s laws against Pogos. I also hope that it will strengthen the campaign of our law enforcement agencies to fully hold accountable the remaining Pogos and other online scams in the country,” he added. —WITH A REPORT FROM TINA G. SANTOS
