Column: What do we do about Alice Guo?

​The answers she gave in two Senate hearings were mystifying, and deeply problematic. But then the public discourse swirling about her is equally cringeworthy. Published in Rappler on May 29, 2024.

Without access to the so-called military “intel” that has reportedly reached some senators, I can only conclude from her answers in two Senate hearings that Alice Guo, the mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, is a willing corporate dummy. 

There IS reason to think that she was a mere stand-in for some principal. She said she didn’t know who some of her fellow incorporators were (even though some of them were also listed as incorporators in other businesses she was a part of); she said she didn’t know how much rental income the Baofu compound in Bamban earned, even though she said that before divesting she owned 50% of the company; she said she couldn’t say exactly how much her businessman-father gave her, or how often, but only that the money came in large amounts—half a million, or a million, or 2 million, at a time.

There IS reason for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), which led the raid on the Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) located in the compound, to believe that she remains involved in Baofu. Part of the evidence trail leads back to her: A letter of no objection she filed on behalf of Hongsheng Gaming Technology, the original company with a POGO license; utility statements for Hongsheng up until November 2023, six months after its license had been canceled and over a year since Guo became mayor; a vehicle in the compound registered to her; a current Tarlac Electric Cooperative bill in her name and title (“Mayor Alice Guo, Pandan, Bamban”).