Alice Guo paid Bamban POGO’s electric bills even when she was mayor

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Monday presented official receipts from Tarlac II Electric Cooperative, Inc., saying they showed that Alice Guo paid the electricity bills of the raided POGO hub in Bamban, Tarlac amounting to millions of pesos even during her stint as the town mayor.

During the continuation of the Senate investigation into the illegal POGOs, the senator revealed that the dismissed mayor paid either in cash or with check the following electricity bills of the POGO hub from an account under her own name:

• December 29,2022: P28 million paid in cash
• September 21, 2022: P5.4 million paid in check
• July 2023: P6.4 million paid in check
• July 26, 2023: P3.170 million paid in check
• January 4,2024: P3.44 million paid in cash
• January 8,2024: P5.308 million paid in check

"Mayor ka na nito noong nagbabayad ka ng Tarelco. At sinabi mo kanina wala kang connection sa POGO, pero 'pag walang kuryente, walang POGO. Ganun kasimple lang 'yun, 'di ba? Kung hindi mo yun binayaran ng kuryente, walang POGO. Walang mare-raid, walang human trafficking, walang torture, wala," Gatchalian said.

(You were already mayor when you were paying Tarelco. And you said earlier you had no connection with POGO, but with no electricity, there's no POGO. It's that simple, isn't it? If you didn't pay their electricity bill, there wouldn't be POGO. Nothing to raid, no human trafficking, no torture, nothing.)

"Pero tuloy-tuloy ka nagbayad. Even noong mayor ka, nagbayad ka. Even this year, nagbayad ka. So alam mo na may nangyayari diyan. At we can also prove na yung amounts na binabayaran mo is equivalent to the size, yung laki ng POGO hub doon," he added.

(But you continued to pay. Even when you were mayor, you paid. Even this year, you paid. So you know what was happening there. And we can prove that the amounts you paid are equivalent to the size, the amount of the POGO hub.)

Gatchalian stressed that Guo cannot argue that her name was just used for the Tarelco account, noting that she issued a check or withdrew cash to pay for the bills.

"Gumawa ka ng cheque, binayaran mo. Nag-withdraw ka ng P28 million, binayaran mo. So hindi lang ito simple 'yung nakapangalan at nagkaligtaan lang na i-transfer sa iba. Nasa pangalan mo pa rin itong kuryenteng ito. So in other words, active participant ka dito sa POGO hub in Bamban," he pointed out.

(You drew a check, you paid. You withdrew P28 million, you paid. So it's not a simple matter of it being in your name then you overlooked transferring it to another. The electricity bill is in your name. So in other words, you are an active participant in this POGO hub in Bamban.)

Guo refused to answer Gatchalian's revelations, saying that she is already facing charges in relation to her alleged involvement in the POGO operations in Bamban.

Apart from direct payments made, Gatchalian revealed that there were payments to Tarelco made by Guo's other companies.

"In 2020, ang QJJ Farm, nagbayad ng kuryente in different dates diretso sa Tarelco. In 2021, 2022, ang QJJ Farm rin nagbayad in those amounts rin iba-iba, may P1.3 million, P5 million, diretso to Tarelco. In 2023, yung QSeed Genetics, nagbayad rin ng different dates, different amounts, P6 million, P2.6 million, diretso to Tarelco," Gatchalian said.

(In 2020, QJJ Farm paid directly to Tarelco on different dates. In 2021, 2022, QJJ Farm also paid different amounts, P1.3 million, P5 million, directly to Tarelco. In 2023, QSeed Genetics paid different amounts on different dates, P6 million, P2.6 million, directly to Tarelco.)

This prompted the senator to ask who the president of QSeed Genetics is.

"Ako po," Guo admitted.

(I am.)

Apart from using QSeed Genetics to pay for the Bamban POGO hub's electricity bills, Gatchalian said, this company was not declared in Guo's Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.

Despite Gatchalian's strong assertion that these documents showed her "active participation" in the POGO operations in Bamban, Guo maintained that she is not involved in these activities.

"Doon pa rin ako naka-stick, doon sa statement ko po na hindi po ako involved d'yan sa POGO. In fact, ngayon nga po, kung di po ako nagkakamali, may forfeiture nga po ng property nga po nung POGO, hindi rin po ako interested kasi hindi naman po talaga siya akin," she said.

(I am sticking to my statement that I am not involved in the POGO. In fact, if I am not mistaken, there is a forfeiture of POGO property, and I am not concerned with it because it's not mine.)

Guo maintained that she already divested from Baofu Land Development, which owns the land where the POGO hub was constructed, before she became mayor.

It was the first time that Guo faced the Senate probe since she escaped the country in July.

She told the Senate committee that she left the Philippines from a port in Metro Manila via sea to reach Malaysia. One of the three boats that they used to flee was a yacht.

Alice Guo is the subject of multiple complaints, one of which was filed with a Tarlac court, which ordered her arrest for her alleged connections to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) in Bamban that was raided for illegal activities.

Among the complaints she is facing are graft, money laundering, and human trafficking.

Alice Guo was arrested in Indonesia on September 4 and arrived in the Philippines on September 6.

She is now in the custody of the Philippine National Police. — BM, GMA Integrated News