Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales, Jr. on Sunday echoed the statement of President Marcos, urging dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo to “tell the truth and tell all you know about illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) for the sake of the country.”
Gonzales appealed to Guo and Lucky South 99 stakeholder Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, whom lawmakers suspect to be behind the illegal POGO hubs in Bamban and Porac, Pampanga, to cooperate with the Philippine government.
“Alice Guo and Cassandra Ong are claiming they are Filipinos. If this is true, they owe it to our country to speak up and reveal all they know about these underground POGOs that flourished during the past administration,” he said.
Guo, who is facing numerous charges in connection with POGO activities in her town, was arrested by authorities in Indonesia. She is expected to face the Senate on Monday to answer questions on the POGO hub in Bamban.
Ong is under detention at the House of Representatives. Her blood pressure level became unstable in the middle of her testimony, prompting the House medical staff to take her to the hospital.
Gonzales said Ong “must be under a lot of pressure from those behind illegal POGOs.”
“A person who is telling the truth is usually relieved of pressure, stress and anxiety. The truth sets him or her free. This was not obviously the case with Miss Ong. She must be keeping a lot of things from us,” he noted. “Why would your blood pressure be unstable if you are telling the truth?”
During a recent hearing by the House Quad Committee, Ong claimed to hold a 58 percent stake in the corporation that owned the sprawling Porac property where 46 buildings, a mansion and other structures were built for a POGO operator, identified as Lucky South 99.
She denied being involved in POGO operations despite admitting to being a representative of the operator.
Gonzales lamented that Pampanga’s reputation has been tainted by criminal activities, including the Porac POGO, the September 2023 seizure of P3.6 billion worth of shabu in a warehouse in Mexico—his hometown—and the discovery of P1.3 billion worth of illegal drugs in an abandoned car in Mabalacat City in August 2023.
