Mayor Alice Guo stole identities for POGO — Senate probe

In this Facebook post on May 31, 2024 shows Mayor Alice Guo meeting senior citizens of Bamban, Tarlac.Facebook / Mayor Alice Leal Guo

MANILA, Philippines — Embattled Mayor Alice Guo allegedly faked her incorporators in Hongsheng Gaming Technology by stealing the identities of vendors at the public market in Tarlac, a Senate probe found out.

During the resumption of the Senate investigation on illegal offshore gaming activities on Wednesday, Tarlac resident Merly Joy Castro said she approached the office of Sen. Risa Hontiveros upon hearing news that she was included in Guo’s human trafficking complaint before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

She denied that a signature and Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) under her name in Hongsheng’s incorporation papers were hers. Hongsheng was the POGO that Guo represented before she was elected mayor in Bamban.

“I do not know anything about making a corporation because I have no means to make one. I only go to work and back home,” Castro, a BPO worker, said in Filipino.

When she heard about the complaint against Guo, Castro said she found familiar the following alleged incorporator names beside hers – Rowena Evangelista, Thelma Laranan and Rita Yturralde.

Castro recognized them from the public market – Evangelista has a stall where she buys her vegetables, Laranan sells breakfast food in the market, while Yturralde sells grilled meat.

Bureau of Internal Revenue lawyer Ralbert Tibayan confirmed during the hearing that Castro’s real TIN did not match that of her alleged TIN as Hongsheng incorporator.

DOJ Undersecretary Felix Nicholas Ty, who is also in charge of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, said Castro and other market vendors can coordinate with authorities to testify about their stolen identities.

Hontiveros warned Guo that she would be cited in contempt if she snubs the next hearing. Guo skipped the Wednesday hearing saying she was too “stressed” and that she was “prejudged” guilty by the committee.