Faces 1,218 years jail term for money laundering charges
Dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo was brought back to the Philippines early Friday dawn after she was arrested by Indonesian authorities in Tangerang City.
Chartered flight RP-C6188, which carried Guo, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr., Philippine National Police chief Gen. Rommel Marbil, and officials of the National Bureau of Investigation landed at a private hangar operated by Royal Star Aviation Inc. at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City at 1:10 a.m.
Guo will be brought to the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame for booking before she can be turned over to the Senate.
“Secretary, please help me. I have a death threat,” were Guo’s first words when she met Abalos in Jakarta on Thursday.
“What is important… (muted part of the video) is the truth. That is why we got a private plane so we can (muted part of the video),” Abalos said in response.
Asked if she was okay, Guo could be seen in another video clip giving two thumbs up.
“I’m good. I’m good,” said Guo, allegedly a Chinese national known as Guo Hua Ping, who has been accused of having links to Chinese organized crime through illegal POGO operations.
Hours before she was deported from Indonesia, a Tarlac court issued an arrest warrant against Guo in connection with a graft case filed by the DILG over her connection to a raided POGO hub in Bamban.
She is also facing human trafficking cases in relation to the raided POGO hub in Bamban and a money laundering case before the Department of Justice.
If found guilty, a jail term of 609 years up to 1,218 years can be imposed on Guo, her sister Shiela, and more than 30 others facing charges for money laundering violations, Senator Risa Hontiveros said.
Adrian Arpon, AMLC Investigation and Enforcement Department Deputy Director, said during a Senate hearing the agency filed 187 counts of money laundering complaints against the Guo sisters and their cohorts.
On social media, netizens were left puzzled that Guo appeared cheerful and even took selfies with government officials and personnel while in Jakarta.
A photo released by the NBI showing Guo inside a car with some of its agents generated mixed reactions, with many finding it both funny and disturbing at the same time.
Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate panel that has been investigating allegations versus Guo, said on her Facebook page: “Reminder to all government employees: Alice Guo is a fugitive. She has a human trafficking case. She is not a celebrity.”
Senator Joel Villanueva added: “Sooo unprofessional…Seriously do you want to take a picture with this treacherous fugitive!”
A videoclip posted by GMA Integrated News on X showing Abalos and Marbil arriving in Indonesia to fetch Guo likewise made former Senator Panfilo Lacson feel quite confused over what he just watched.
“Top level delegation to meet with a suspected criminal offender named Alice? Only in Wonderland,” Lacson replied in the post.
Guo, together with her sister Shiela and brother Wesley left the Philippines on July 17 via a small boat that brought them to Malaysia.
Shiela said they met with Guo’s business associate Cassandra Li Ong in Malaysia before they all flew to Singapore on July 21.
On July 28, Guo’s Chinese parents Lin Wen Yi and Guo Jian Zhong flew in from China to Singapore.
Wesley left for Batam, Indonesia on August 16, and two days later his sisters and Ong followed him.
Shiela and Ong were arrested in Batam on August 22 and were brought back to Manila on the same day.
According to lawyer Stephen David, Wesley is willing to surrender even as he did not reveal his whereabouts.
“He also wants to surrender,” David said, adding that his client “doesn’t see the essence of hiding.”
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission earlier said Wesley attempted to enter Hong Kong on August 26. Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the government is now in the process of cancelling his passport.
Earlier on Thursday, PAOCC denied reports that Indonesia demanded for the extradition of fugitive Australian drug trafficker Gregor Johann Haas in exchange for Guo’s deportation.
PAOCC Executive Director Usec. Gilbert Cruz said it was never discussed with their Indonesian counterparts.
“There is no confirmation about that (prisoner swap demand). It just surfaced in media reports,” Cruz said.
“We have not discussed anything about it. What we discussed is the arrest of Alice Guo and the Indonesians that we rescued following the raid at a POGO site in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu,” the PAOCC official added.
Cruz noted the Indonesian authorities thanked the Philippine government for rescuing their citizens.
