The Philippine National Police directed its regional directors and police chiefs to assist the Senate in arresting suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo and six others involved in illegal POGO activities.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada also urged all government agencies with police power to join the manhunt for Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, whom he said is at the center of the probe into POGO criminal acts.
Over the weekend, the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms started tracking Guo, five of the mayor’s family members—her biological parents Wenyi Lin and Jian Zhong Guo, her brothers Seimen Guo and Wesley Guo and sister Shiela Guo —as well as Guo’s accountant Nancy Gamo and the former head of the now defunct Technology and Livelihood Resource Center Dennis Cunanan.
Gamo was arrested Saturday and is detained at the Senate until the next session scheduled for July 29.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said police chiefs in areas where the accused individuals have addresses have been alerted.
“As for the arrest warrants issued against Mayor Alice Guo and her other associates, the PNP provided security assistance to the personnel of the Senate Sergeant at Arms last weekend. But as we speak, I don’t have any information whether there was another attempt to serve these warrants of arrest,” she added.
Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, said the connection of Michael Yang’s brother to a company of Mayor Guo will boost her assertion that some POGOs are “One Big Happy Pharmally”—a reference to the Pharmally company that was implicated in a multi-billion scandal during the past administration.
Hontiveros said a report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council showed that the Baofu compound owned by Guo where the Hongsheng POGO is located has a direct transaction in the joint account of Hongjiang Yang and Yu Zheng Can.
Hongjiang Yang is a brother of Michael Yang, the financier of Pharmally Biological Company Inc. and a former economic adviser of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte, she said.
“In short, the money of Michael Yang’s brother was used to fund Hongsheng, the POGO raided in Bamban, Tarlac,” Hontiveros said.
But Raymund Fortun, Michael Yang’s legal counsel, said he does not know Hongjiang Yang.
“I don’t even know that Michael has a brother,” he added.
A presentation by Hontiveros during a Zoom interview showed that during the Duterte administration, Michael Yang and Hongjiang Yang both attended a Chinese Communist Party-sponsored conference in Beijing for overseas nationals as Philippine representatives of the All China Federation of Returned Overseas.
“What’s scary is that it really appears that Guo was really connected with a bigger syndicate,” Hontivero said.
Hontiveros also noted that Hongjiang Yang is an incorporator of Full Win Group of Companies where Gerald Cruz is an incorporator. Cruz is also an incorporator of Pharmally Biological Company Inc.
“The same Gerald Cruz is also an incorporator of the POGO Brickhartz Technology Inc., whose documents were found during the Bamban raid,” the senator said.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline Senate intensifies manhunt for Guo; next hearing set on July 29
