Bamban mayor Guo still MIA in wake of POGO ban

The suspended Bamban, Philippines mayor, Alice Guo, appears to have accomplished in months what multiple lawmakers failed to accomplish in several years: bringing down Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs). 

Since 2022, senators have been calling for a ban on the offshore gaming industry, long tainted by reports of criminal activity. 

On Monday, following disturbing revelations about the small-town mayor’s possible involvement in illegal activity, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr called for an immediate ban of the industry. 

“Grave abuse and disrespect”

In his third state of the nation address, on 22 July, Marcos stated: “Effective today, all POGOs are banned. I hereby instruct the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) to wind down and cease the operations of POGOs by the end of the year.”

Marcos said the industry, established in 2016 under the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte, has “ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder.

“The grave abuse and disrespect of our system must stop.”

Bamban raid

The clamor to abolish POGOs intensified in March, after the raid of the facility in Bamban, where Guo was elected mayor in 2022. Pressure on the sector stretches back to 2019, when lawmakers put a halt on new POGO licences, even if Duterte refused to bow to Chinese demands for a ban that year.

As in other POGO raids, hundreds of workers at the site claimed to have been victims of human trafficking and physical abuse. Investigators then discovered that Guo was part owner of the land where the facility was based. They also found that she held dozens of bank accounts that funded the operation – money that purportedly originated in China. 

Finally, the probe revealed Guo is actually a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping. After she failed to appear at hearings into the human trafficking allegations, authorities issued a warrant for her arrest. 

National security issue

Although she refuses to appear in person, Guo has taken to social media to proclaim her innocence. 

In a Facebook post shared by her legal counsel Stephen David, she wrote that the charges are baseless. She added that the country “faces many critical issues” including poverty and unemployment and advised lawmakers to focus on those problems “instead of continuously threatening me with arrest and accusing me of being complicit in various Philippine offshore gaming operations-related crimes.” 

Guo seemed to suggest that politicians calling for her arrest are simply grandstanding. “Am I really the country’s biggest problem?” she asked. “Or is it just because (politicians) are gaining popularity at my expense that they will not leave me alone?”

“We are allergic to liars”

Senator Rita Hontiveros responded by addressing “Alice Guo or Guo Hua Ping”.

“Attendance before the senate hearings is adherence to the rule of law,” the senator warned, adding, “Don’t worry, we are not fixated on you. We are allergic to liars.”

In an opinion piece in the Philippine Star, attorney Ian Vincent Manticajon wrote that Guo is, in fact, “the Philippines’ biggest problem” – a problem of “corruption and betrayal” in which public officials are “willing to sell their country to foreigners for the right price”. 

“Alice Guo’s case exemplifies this problem,” he wrote, “where it appears that identity and citizenship can be bought, undermining the very foundations of our national integrity.”

Trojan horse strategy

Some Philippine lawmakers have expressed concerns that China used POGOs to infiltrate the country in a “Trojan horse” strategy, with the goal of undermining national security.

Defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro has said Beijing was supporting POGOs to undermine “our political, economic, social and peace and order fabric. The most effective way of weakening your enemy is to cause trouble in its country.” 

Armed forces chief of staff General Romeo Brawner Jr agreed that the “strategic locations of POGOs” near the capital city of Manila and near military bases, created “a perimeter for espionage”.

Meanwhile, Alice Guo’s whereabouts remain unknown. Some reports suggest she may have fled the country using a Chinese passport.