MANILA, Philippines — The transfer of convicted human trafficker Alice Guo to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City will have to wait, after the disgraced former mayor of Bamban, Tarlac filed an urgent motion for her to remain in the Pasig City Jail.
In a one-page order dated Nov. 20, Judge Annielyn Medes-Cabelis of Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 167 set the hearing on Guo’s motion on Nov. 26.
It means Guo will remain at the Pasig City Jail Female Dormitory while the court resolves her motion.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), which has jurisdiction over the Pasig City Jail, said it has yet to receive an order from the court related to Guo as of Friday.
“She has not been transferred yet,” BJMP spokesman Lt. Col. Jayrex Bustinera said in Filipino in a text message.
Guo and three others were convicted of qualified trafficking in persons and sentenced to life in prison, after they were found guilty of organizing human trafficking at the Baofu compound, while Chinese nationals Wang Weili, Wuli Dong, Nong Ding Chang and Lang Xu Po were convicted for acts of trafficking.
Each was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined P2 million per case.
Guo’s conviction came after the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the Philippine National Police raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) Zun Yuan Technology at the Baofu compound in Tarlac last year.
Where is Cassandra Ong?
Senators Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday expressed alarm that Cassandra Ong – one of the suspects behind the Philippine offshore gaming hub Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga, which allegedly operated a massive scam farm that trafficked workers – is now at large.
The senators mentioned Ong and former presidential spokesman Harry Roque’s names during the plenary debates on the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s proposed budget next year.
Hontiveros asked the DOJ’s budget sponsor, Gatchalian, the status of the human trafficking cases filed against Ong and Roque.
Roque is= at large abroad, Gatchalian said, while Ong used to be detained at the Correctional Institution for Women during the House of Representatives’ POGO investigation in the 19th Congress.But when the last Congress ended and the 20th Congress was ushered in, she was released from detention.
This makes her now at large after an arrest warrant was issued last May against her and Roque by the Angeles Regional Trial Court in connection with their human trafficking case.
The Bureau of Immigration is tracking her whereabouts if she was able to leave the country, Gatchalian said, as he expressed fears Ong was able to exit through the backdoor the same way she did with Guo until their arrest last year.
The DOJ has also sought to cancel her passport, Gatchalian added.
Roque reacts
Meanwhile, Roque yesterday condemned the alleged attempt of the DOJ to link him to human trafficking, following Guo’s conviction.
In a statement posted on his Facebook account, Roque was reacting to DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Ty, who said that the court’s legal theory in the Guo case can be used against him.
“I strongly condemn the irresponsible and desperate attempt of Department of Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Ty to drag my name into the human trafficking allegations linked to the Porac POGO. His claim that the court’s theory in the Alice Guo case can be used against me, invoking the provision on organizing or directing others to commit human trafficking, is not only absurd, it is deliberate disinformation,” the former spokesman said.
Roque maintained that he never organized, directed, assisted or participated in any act of human trafficking.
“I had zero involvement in the corporation or operations of the Porac POGO. My only connection came after the 2022 elections, when I returned to the practice of law and was engaged solely to handle an ejectment case, and negotiations for the rescheduling of arrears with PAGCOR,” he said.
Angeles City Regional Trial Court Branch 118 Judge Rene Reyes has issued warrants for Roque and Ong, among others, on charges of qualified trafficking over their alleged involvement in the operations of an illegal POGO in the province.
“Any attempt to retroactively paint it as a criminal enterprise for the sake of political theatrics is propaganda, plain and simple. The information filed against me is utterly baseless and politically motivated. It is designed to intimidate, silence and malign – nothing more. I will face these accusations head-on and expose them for what they are: a witch-hunt built on speculation, not evidence,” Roque added.
“I will not be bullied. I will not be silenced. And I will not allow political operatives to weaponize the law to advance their own agendas,” he added. — Bella Cariaso, Marc Jayson Cayabyab