NOTHING INSIDE Policemen force open on Monday the two vaults seized in the supposed bedroom of Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, who has been linked to an illegal Pogo and human trafficking in Porac, Pampanga. —Tonette T. Orejas
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, PAMPANGA, Philippines — The two vaults that were seized in the supposed bedroom of a woman subpoenaed to appear in the next hearing of a Senate investigation on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) in Porac town of Pampanga were found empty when the police opened them on Monday.
Policemen in Pampanga broke open the small black steel vaults on the strength of a supplemental order issued by acting Executive Judge Mary Jane Dacara-Buenaventura of the Regional Trial Court’s Third Judicial Region in this Pampanga capital to Police Lt. Col. Samuel Adaniel Quibete, chief of the Provincial Investigation and Detection Management Unit.
READ: Pogo leisure hub in Porac has firing range, tunnel
The same order named Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, whose room in a raided mansion in Porac was where the vaults were found, as a respondent in a human trafficking case that was filed following the searches on Lucky South 99 on June 4 and June 5 by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission inside Grand Palazzo Royale.
Police confiscated the vaults following a search on July 6 on a 2.5-hectare compound on Daisy Street, Purok 6 in Barangay Señora in Porac, which was reported to be used by the big bosses of Lucky South and Zun Yuan Technology, the latter being located in nearby Bamban, Tarlac.
Fenced by a concrete wall as high as 20 feet, the raided Porac compound appeared to be an exclusive leisure resort complete with an underground tunnel connecting the main lavishly furnished mansion and a villa in the middle of a man-made lake, an indoor firing range that had no license to operate, and a helicopter pad.
Ong’s bedroom displayed a big portrait of her. She listed herself as a Filipino incorporator of Whirlwind Corp., according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents.
Stephanie Mascareńas, a listed incorporator of Lucky South, said in a recent hearing of the Pampanga provincial board that Whirlwind leased lands to Lucky South, which she said Ong also ran.
Two Chinese nationals—Jing Gu and Xiang Tan—were listed as incorporators of Whirlwind and Lucky South.
Sign of guilt?
In the July 6 search, police saw the two vaults in a bedroom confirmed by the three female caretakers to be used by Cassy Li, the other name being used by Ong, reportedly the girlfriend of the brother of Bamban Mayor Alice Guo.
Guo was suspended following raids on the supposed illegal activities of Pogo Zun Yuan Technology Inc. inside Baofu Land Development. Guo, who reportedly owned half of Baofu, is now the subject of a Senate arrest warrant for failing to appear in two hearings she was summoned to attend.
On Monday, the police used a grinder to cut the screws in the vault in the presence of several barangay leaders.
“We haven’t found any item inside [the two vaults]. It’s an indication they have been able to prepare in removing anything of evidence,” Lt. Col. Jaime Edejer, Pampanga police public information officer, told the Inquirer.
“It could probably also be a sign of guilt,” he added.
Ong, whose whereabouts are unknown, was once seen in Porac giving away school supplies in Barangay Señora some 5 kilometers from Lucky South’s hub.