Sen. Risa Hontiveros —Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — One of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s companies had transactions with the brother of Michael Yang, a discovery by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that may bolster the link between the Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Monday.
In an online media briefing, Hontiveros said the AMLC’s investigation into the financial dealings of the suspended mayor showed that Yang could have also dipped his hands into the lucrative Pogo business that flourished during Duterte’s presidency.
Citing a report from the AMLC, she said Baofu Land Development Inc. had received money from the joint account of Yang’s brother, Hongjiang Yang, and one Yu Zheng Can.
READ: Pogo probe: CA freezes accounts of Alice Guo, others
The funds, she claimed, were used to bankroll Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc., which built the vast Pogo complex in Bamban that authorities raided on March 13.
The senator, however, declined to provide other details of the business transactions between Hongjiang Yang and Baofu Land, where Guo served as president before she supposedly sold her shares in the company in 2021 when she ran for mayor.
READ: Alice Guo asks SC to stop Senate from using her as resource person
“The findings of the AMLC showed that (Hongjiang Yang) had direct transactions with Guo. But I cannot tell you the amount involved at this point,” Hontiveros told reporters.
She said she would ask the AMLC to discuss their findings when the hearing of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality resumes on July 29. Hontiveros heads the committee.
‘Interlocking directorates’
The joint account of Yang and Yu was among the 90 bank accounts covered by a freeze order last week by the Court of Appeals after the AMLC filed an ex parte petition.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian had previously said that several billions of pesos had flowed into Guo’s 36 bank accounts, purportedly to finance Hongsheng’s operations from 2019 to 2022.
According to Hontiveros, it was worth noting that Hongjiang was an incorporator of the Philippine Full Win Group of Companies, along with a certain Gerald Cruz.
She said that Full Win, a Xiamen-based company that listed Michael Yang as its chair, was previously linked with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., the startup company behind the government’s graft-tainted purchases of pandemic supplies.
Besides being the corporate secretary of both Pharmally and Full Win, Cruz was an incorporator of Brickhartz Technology Inc., Hontiveros said, referring to a shuttered Pogo company in Cavite province that was previously implicated in kidnapping and torture cases.
The “interlocking directorates” of Pharmally and some Pogo companies show that the individuals behind these entities belong to the same group, she said.
Last week, the House committee on dangerous drugs ordered Yang’s arrest for snubbing its investigation into the P3.6-billion drug bust in Pampanga province last year.
Advice to Guo
Meanwhile, Hontiveros called on Guo to heed the advice of her lawyer, Stephen David, to surface and comply with the arrest order issued by the Senate.
Guo and seven others, including her three siblings and their supposed Chinese parents, were ordered arrested on July 11 for ignoring the summonses for them to participate in the Senate hearing on Pogos.
Of the eight, only Nancy Gamo, the accountant of several companies owned by the Guo family, has been accounted for by the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms.
“Unfortunately, if only she showed up when we invited her during the past two hearings, we don’t need to have this conversation. She should have just honored the subpoena,” Hontiveros said.
“It would be better for Guo to follow the legal advice of her lawyer to show herself and surrender,” she said.
According to David, he was able to speak with his client over the phone for more than an hour on Sunday.
In a radio interview, he said he reminded Guo that she cannot evade the Senate’s arrest order “forever.”
“This is a Senate warrant of arrest. This is not to punish you or anything. You were subpoenaed just so you can testify as a resource person,” the lawyer recalled as telling Guo.
David said the mayor intimated that she was “getting more and more confused” and that she felt “more traumatized.”
“I personally sensed that she was afraid. She’s afraid of something,” David said.