Mayor Guo admits she’s unaware of business partners’ criminal records

Mayor Alice Guo —File photo / RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — Bamban Mayor Alice Guo on Wednesday said she was unaware that her foreign business partners have criminal records.

During a Senate committee on women hearing, chair Senator Risa Hontiveros disclosed that Guo’s co-incorporators in the Baofu Land Development Inc. included Filipino national Rachel Joan Malonzo Carreon, Cypriot national Zhiyang Huang, Chinese national Zhang Ruijin, and Dominican national Baoying Lin.

READ: Hontiveros flags Bamban Mayor Alice Guo’s ‘ties’ to criminals

“What it really looks like to me is Baofu was deliberately formed by you, and individuals involved in money laundering and other criminal activities and it was part of a synchronized plan all along, buying land, opening up a Pogo (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator) enterprise, maximizing our flawed regulatory system to abet scams, human trafficking and money laundering,” said Hontiveros.

But Guo, for her part, denied knowing about her partners’ background, explaining that she only learned about their criminal records through Hontiveros’ social media post on Tuesday.

“Nalaman ko lang po kahapon doon sa Facebook post niyo po. After ko malaman, sinearch ko po sila, ang kausap ko po sa Baofu ay si Huang Zhiyang, ‘yung dalawa po hindi ko po nakausap,” explained Guo.

(I only found out about them yesterday through your Facebook post. Once I learned about it, I looked them up. The only one who I talked to in Baofu was Huang Zhiyang, the other two I never had a conversation with.)

She narrated that after divesting from the company in 2022, she has not heard from them since.

“Kahapon nakita ko sa Facebook post niyo po, na sila ay money launderer sa Singapore at nag-research ako through Google din at nakita ko nga po na ‘yung dalawa ay sangkot nga sa money laundering sa Singapore at kahapon ko lang nalaman gawa noong nakita ko sa Facebook post niyo,” she added.

(Yesterday I saw on your Facebook post that they are money launderers in Singapore and I also researched through Google and I found that the two are indeed involved in money laundering in Singapore and I only found out yesterday when I saw them in your Facebook post.)

Lack of due diligence

Hontiveros then blasted Guo for not conducting due diligence, questioning how she could not even know about her own business partners’ backgrounds.

“Hindi ba dapat kung papasok kayo sa ganiyang kalaking negosyo, napakalaki kumpara sa mga nauna niyo nang negosyo, ‘di ba dapat nag-due diligence kayo?” said Hontiveros.

(Shouldn’t you be? When entering into such a big business compared to your previous businesses, shouldn’t you practice due diligence.)

But Guo, in response, merely reiterated that it was only Huang Zhiyang who she had contact with.

Huang, however, is also an identified fugitive who is being hunted by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.

This developed after the two Pogo firms in Bamban, Tarlac—Hongsheng Gaming Technology Incorporated and Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated—were linked to Guo because she was an incorporator of Baoufu, the compound where the Pogo firms were located.

Hongsheng was raided in February 2023 and was replaced by Zun Yuan in the same location. It was then again raided in March 2024 for charges of alleged human trafficking and serious illegal detention.