A Pasig court has handed down a life sentence to former Bamban mayor Alice Guo after finding her liable for human trafficking connected to the scam operations that once operated steps away from her own municipal office.
The ruling came from Regional Trial Court Branch 167, which declared that Guo’s actions tied her to the illicit activities inside the sprawling seven-hectare complex in Bamban, Central Luzon. The property, now under government control, had been leased through Baofu — the real estate firm she helped establish before entering politics.
Prosecutors argued that her supposed exit from the business was questionable, and the court agreed, saying evidence showed her divestment claim did not hold.
Two Filipino incorporators of the POGO operator Hongsheng — Rachelle Malonzo Carreon and Jamielyn Cruz — were likewise convicted in the same decision. Other Filipino women listed as incorporators, who said their identities were misused, were cleared.
Guo’s ties to Baofu connected her to controversial figures, including Chinese national Huang Zhiyang, identified as her business partner. Huang, who remains at large, is known to authorities in China and has been linked in past reports to international criminal operations. He and Guo also had business links to two individuals previously convicted of money laundering in Singapore, both of whom were later deported to Cambodia. A report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime earlier noted that illicit funds from the Philippines had been funneled into Singapore.
Authorities also noted that the list of incorporators included an unidentified Chinese national who shared a large bank account with Hongjiang Yang, the brother of former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang.
