Billions of pesos from China were deposited to 36 bank accounts allegedly under the name of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo or Guo Hua Ping from 2019 to 2022, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed on Friday, citing documents from the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
“My theory was that the bulk of billions came in during that time to bankroll the construction of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) hub in Bamban, Tarlac,” Gatchalian said, noting that billions of funds continued to enter the accounts this year.
He said Guo and Zhiyang Huang, Roderick Paul Pujante, Baoyong Lin, Hongjiang Yang, Zhengcan Yu, Zhang Ruijin, and Rachelle Joan Carreon will all be charged with violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
The AMLC said the entities were allegedly used to orchestrate human trafficking and fraudulent activities.
The POGO hub sits on a sprawling 10-hectare Zun Yuan Technology complex with several villas, tunnels and an Olympic-sized swimming pool, in what the mayor claimed as her hometown.
Joint operatives of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) raided the site in March.
Guo has been accused of faking her identity based on documents gathered by the Senate and government authorities.
According to Gatchalian, he still has no information on the current amount in the bank accounts of Guo and other individuals and entities with alleged connections to the illicit operations of POGOs.
The bank transactions, he said, involved not only the deposits but the money withdrawn.
Gatchalian noted that Guo and the other POGO personalities and entities need to justify the source of billions of money that entered their bank accounts.
“That is the essence of Money Laundering… She (Guo) must justify the billions in her accounts,” said the senator who, along with Sen. Risa Hontiveros, has been leading the Senate inquiry into the illegal POGO operation.
Gatchalian also said they will check with the AMLC if the bank accounts, a helicopter, 12 luxury motor vehicles and 12 real properties ordered frozen were the only assets of Guo.
The senator said there are other properties in Guo’s Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) which were not included in the freeze order issued by the Court of Appeals.
Guo previously told a Senate hearing that she had sold the helicopter, which she acquired for P60 million, to a British company earlier this year.
As this developed, Gatchalian expressed disappointment at the failure of government authorities to check the transactions of a suspected large-scale money laundering activity.
Gatchalian also scored the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) for its delayed reporting of “covered and suspicious” bank transactions, which surfaced only this year.
The senator said the banks where the deposits were made could be held liable as he raised the possibility of collusion between the financial institutions and the suspected criminal organizations.
Gatchalian said he will file a resolution to look further into this new angle.
Meanwhile, the senator disclosed that P300,000 is the price tag for foreigners to obtain a fake birth certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). He also learned from the Chinese community that this includes the issuance of a passport and a driver’s license.
Gatchalian believes an organized “syndicate” is behind these operations, linking it to the 200 Chinese citizens arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on this issue.
He asked the PSA to provide them with immediate solutions to fix the problem.
Gatchalian also rejected the statement of Guo’s lawyer Stephen David that he violated the rights of his client when he released the records of her assets.
David claimed such tactics are an indication that the Senate has a weak case against his client, which is why senators have been subjecting Guo to a “trial by publicity.”
Gatchalian said he released the document to the media Thursday night after the Court of Appeals (CA) released the order freezing the assets of all those involved in illegal POGO activities, which included money laundering.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline “Chinese money fueled Guo’s 36 bank accounts frozen by AMLC—Gatchalian.”
