Contempt orders vs Alice Guo, Cassie Ong, Tony Yang lifted

CENTER OF POGO PROBE Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac, Mayor Alice Guo faces the House quad committee on Sept. 19, the most watched personality in the Pogo investigations that started early this year. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Contempt orders issued against key individuals who have been subjects of a congressional probe on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogo) and illegal drugs — including dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo — have been lifted.

During the tail end of the House of Representatives’ quad committee hearing on Thursday, Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano made the motion to grant the separate appeals of Guo, Chinese businessman Tony Yang, and Whirlwind Corporation stakeholder Cassandra Ong to lift the contempt orders.

The motions were approved by quad committee lead presiding officer and Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers after they were duly seconded.

Ong is currently detained at the Correctional Institute for Women, Guo at the Pasig City Jail, while Yang is under the custody of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission.

The latest contempt order against Ong came last October 23, after she failed to submit documents needed by the quad committee.

In previous hearings, lawmakers asked that Ong submit her bank records and other documents pertaining to her line of work at Whirlwind Corporation, where she holds a 58 percent share.  However, Ong said that she cannot access her documents as it was in a phone confiscated by authorities.

Whirlwind is the company that leased the land in Porac, Pampanga to Pogo hub operator Lucky South 99 — which was raided last June 4 due to human trafficking issues.

Lawmakers believe Whirlwind and Lucky South 99 operate as one firm — a theory that was bolstered by Ong’s admission that she worked for both companies.

Last September 19, during the sixth quad-committee hearing, Ong was cited for contempt again as she continued to give evasive answers when lawmakers asked her about different issues, like her educational background.

Guo, who is accused of being a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping, was cited for contempt last September 19.

READ: Alice Guo cited for contempt due to evasive answers at House hearing 

Guo is accused of having links with another Pogo hub, this time in Bamban, as she used to head Baofu Land Development Inc.

According to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Baofu — as represented by Guo who was president of the company — purchased eight parcels of land in the town last February 2019.  Baofu then leased this land to Pogo hub manager Zun Yuan.

Guo claims to have divested ownership of Baofu, but DILG believes the amount she divested it for — P2.5 million — was “grossly incongruent to her investment on Baufo which is approximately eight hectares of land”.

READ: DILG files graft charges vs Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo 

The former local chief executive was also accused of being a Chinese spy.  In the quad committee’s hearing last September 27, Guo — who has always exhibited a calm and happy demeanor — showed a different side when she visibly became agitated over a video documentary from foreign news outlet Al Jazeera, about Chinese spy She Zhijang.

In the video, She Zhijang claimed that he funneled funds to Guo Hua Ping — believed to be Guo’s true Chinese identity — for Guo’s election campaign in the Philippines.  The same documentary showed Guo’s alleged hometown in Fujian, China, which sat close to a Chinese Communist Party office.

READ: Agitated? Alice Guo loses cool after House shows docu on Chinese spy 

Yang, brother of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser Michael Yang, was cited for contempt last September 27, for supposedly lying about his associates.

READ: House quad panel cites Tony Yang for contempt 

Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez was asking Yang questions about his business partners and people who posed in photos with him, but Yang evaded these by saying that he did not know them.