Guo to reveal POGO mastermind in executive session

DISMISSED Bamban Mayor Alice L. Guo told senators on Tuesday she would be willing to reveal the supposed international crime syndicate pulling the strings behind the offshore gaming operations in Tarlac province in an executive session.

“I am not the mastermind, you can say that I am a victim,” she said in Filipino before a senate committee, looking into her involvement in crimes linked to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs).

“The committee probably figured out who is behind everything over the course of the investigation.”

The senators and Ms. Guo met in a closed-door session right after the hearing ended.

In the same hearing, Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel lifted the contempt order against Shiela Guo, Alice’s sister, and transferred her to the custody of the Bureau of Immigration from the Senate.

The dismissed Mayor and her siblings were cited in contempt in July for failing to show up in several Senate hearings investigating their involvement in POGO-linked crimes.

Authorities are also looking into a former national police chief who had been allegedly bribed by Ms. Guo to help her escape the country.

The dismissed mayor, who was arrested in Jakarta on Sept. 4, earlier told senators that she fled the country via a yacht.

She has been accused of coddling an illegal POGO in Bamban, Tarlac, where she ran and won for the first time as mayor in 2022. Raided by authorities in March, an illegal hub on land she partially owned had been linked to scamming operations.

In his third State of the Nation Address, Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.  ordered the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. to shut all POGO companies by the end of the year, citing their links to organized crime.

“This blatant abuse of our institutions must stop, these human trafficking activities must stop,” Ms. Hontiveros said. “We must eradicate these syndicates.” — John Victor D. Ordoñez