Gatchalian: Intel funds not properly used
SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday trained his sights on the Bureau of Immigration and other concerned agencies, saying their apparent failure to put their intelligence funds to good use led to the escape of dismissed mayor Alice Guo and her siblings last July.
Gatchalian said the BI and other concerned agencies need to explain how they are using their intel funds, adding these funds are given to select government agencies so they can create a network they can rely on if they need valuable information on certain concerns.
He questioned why BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco took five days to confirm that the Guos — Alice, Shiela, and Wesley — Guo had left for Malaysia, while Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros readily disclosed the Guo’s escape upon receipt of the information.
“Sen. Hontiveros has a good intelligence network and she readily validated the information. She will not disclose any information without having it validated, and Sen. Risa is not part of the executive. But why did Bureau of Immigration Commissioner (Tansingco) take five days to validate that?” Gatchalian said at the Kapihan sa Senado media forum.
Gatchalian said he will raise this when the budgets of the BI and other law enforcement agencies are tackled.
Asked if Tansingco should resign, Gatchalian said they will continue the Senate hearings to determine the culpability of the BI commissioner.
The next hearing is set for Monday, September 2.
Gatchalian also slammed the Anti-Money Laundering Council for not immediately filing money laundering cases against Alice Guo.
He said he gave the AMLC information on the possible money laundering of Alice and the other POGO officers last March 25, two weeks after the Bamban POGO hub was raided.
The AMLC earlier said it will file cases “within the week.”
Meanwhile, Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, who was nabbed by Indonesian authorities last week along with Shiela Guo and sent back to Manila, finally broke her silence last Wednesday night after lawmakers threatened to transfer her to the Correctional Center in Mandaluyong for being uncooperative with their investigation into the proliferation of POGOs under the Duterte administration and criminal activities associated with their operations.
After invoking her right to remain silent, Ong revealed to the quad comm led by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers that Alice Guo is the sister of her boyfriend Wesley. She, however, denied that the two of them are business partners or even “close friends.”
Ong, 24, whose Chinese father is a naturalized Filipino, was reportedly with Alice and Shiela in Malaysia and Indonesia before Ong and Shiela were caught and deported to the Philippines.
INTEL FUNDS
Gatchalian said intelligence funds, when properly used, would allow agencies to create a network of information through their “assets” or informants.
He said Alice Guo and company could have been prevented from leaving the country if effective intelligence networks were established.
“They have ‘assets’ [informants], let’s say in seaports, so that when such problems arise, they can readily have information, there will be someone who will provide a tip. That’s the nature of intelligence–you are building a network. And if you only used it properly, that would have been a big help,” he said.
Gatchalian said authorities should also focus on other personalities involved in the operation of illegal POGOs in Porac, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac.
He said authorities should also hunt the foreigners, mostly Chinese, who were part of Lucky South 99 Corporation and Whirlwind Corporation (connected with the Porac POGO facility), and Baofu Land Development Inc. and Zun Yuan Technologies Inc (connected with the Bamban POGO hub).
Gatchalian said the incorporators and ranking officials of these companies were in cahoots with Alice Guo in setting up and running illegal POGO facilities.
“They are all missing. Authorities have raided the POGO hubs, but where are these personalities now? Physically, they are not around. So, that’s another issue that should be given attention,” he said.
AMLC SLAMMED
Gatchalian said the Anti-Money Laundering Council had dragged its food on filing money laundering cases against Alice Guo.
He noted it was clear money laundering was involved in illegal POGO operations but the AMLC has been slow in filing a case.
“I have long been telling AMLC but it said that it will file the cases this week. It is very clear that there is money laundering [in illegal POGO activities]. I ask for updates each time we have hearings but all I get is that they will soon file the cases. AMLC was created to enforce the law and file cases. I will ask for an explanation why the cases are dragging,” he said, adding “Shiela Guo should be included in the charges since she is the treasurer” of the POGO hub in Bamban.
He said Alice Guo will be charged with perjury and disobedience to summons “within the week,” adding he was informed by Senate secretary Renato Bantug that the charges will be filed “anytime soon.”
“They are just polishing it. Everyone got busy with all these things happening, including the case of Shiela Guo. But the charges are ready for filing,” he said.
He said that to his understanding, the cases to be filed against Alice are bailable, but added the Senate can request for the issuance of a Hold Departure Order from the court considering she is in the center of the cases involving illegal POGOs.
Senate President Francis Escudero earlier said the Office of the Senate Legal Counsel is reviewing who will file an affidavit of perjury against Alice since neither Gatchalian nor Hontiveros “do not have personal knowledge on who lied or refused to attend Senate hearings.”
Escudero, a lawyer, said Senate personnel and members of the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms will be in the best position to execute the affidavits since they have personal knowledge of the incident, having prepared and implemented the warrant of arrest, respectively.
“According to the law, they are the ones who will execute the affidavit,” Escudero said.
Gatchalian said making false statements under oath is a violation of Article 183 of the Revised Penal Code, adding Alice Guo’s refusal to attend Senate hearings is a violation of Article 150 of the RPC.
Escudero said this could lead to the issuance of a warrant of arrest against Alice if she fails to answer the charges and be declared in default.
“The case will remain pending unless she appears before the court. So, anytime she returns to the Philippines, a warrant of arrest will be issued against her. But if she cannot be found, the case will be archived until she appears, then a warrant of arrest will be issued,” Escudero said.
Gatchalian said Shiela Guo, like Alice, is a master of deception, portraying themselves as innocent-looking women who live simple lives.
He said Shiela’s narratives during the Senate hearing last Tuesday are hard to believe.
“We have to be very careful with this Guo family. Parang mga professional liars and professional swindlers. Nakita natin kay Guo Hua Ping (Alice), hindi ba lumaki raw siya sa farm, homeschooled, simple lang, inosente. Pero if you look at the documents and if you look at the evidence, hindi siya ganon. Much more sophisticated siya. That’s why we have to be careful (We have to be very careful with this Guo family. They look like professional liars and professional swindlers. We have seen this in Guo Hua Ping, who said she grew up on their farm, homeschooled, lived a simple life, and was innocent. But if you look at the documents and if you look at the evidence, it tells us otherwise. She is much more sophisticated that’s why we have to be careful),” Gatchalian said.
He said Shiela cannot claim that she does not know the activities of the Guo family since she had affixed her signatures more than 90 times either as a chief finance officer or corporate secretary in the Guo family’s 10 businesses.
“Right now, the evidence is pointing na hindi siya inosente dahil pumipirma siya ng mga dokumento (Right now, the evidence is pointing that she [Sheila] is not innocent because she signed the [financial] documents),” Gatchalian added.
He said that Shiela’s testimony last Tuesday was full of inconsistencies.
Gatchalian said Shiela was obviously lying when she claimed that she only personally met Cassandra Li Ong for the first time when they reached Malaysia, but records showed that Shiela and Ong have traveled together in the past.
“Ang daming inconsistencies. Wala raw siyang alam sa mga documents ng Guo businesses but the documents show that she is in the center of the Guo family businesses (There are a lot of inconsistencies. Shiela said she knew nothing of the Guo family’s businesses but documents showed she is in the center of them),” he said.
He said Shiela can qualify as a state witness if she would reveal all of Alice’s illegal activities but doubted if she would do that because her legal counsel is also the legal counsel of Alice.
Gatchalian said Shiela could be the key to unearthing the sources of finances of the Guo family being their corporate secretary and chief finance officer since documents showed that the Guo family’s businesses are not earning much and yet billions of pesos have been deposited in their bank accounts.
He said it would not be far-fetched that the money used to construct the POGO hub in Bamban came from the Guo family’s businesses.
As chief finance officer and corporate secretary, Gatchalian said Shiela is responsible for making board resolutions, signing checks, and keeping the accounting books of the Guo businesses.
He said they would have to squeeze the information from Shiela to determine the truth.
Gatchalian said Shiela would be detained at the Senate until the contempt citation was lifted.
“She will be detained until she becomes consistent with her answers and her level of detail in telling the story. Her stories are without details. She is still hiding a lot of information. She can be detained in another jail if she does not fully cooperate,” he said.
Gatchalian said he has no information on reports that Shiela is a sister of former Duterte adviser Michael Yang.
READYING CHARGES
Alice Guo is in for more legal woes, with authorities readying the filing of money laundering charges against her and several others, the Department of Justice said.
DOJ Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty said aside from Guo, also to be charged for money laundering is her purported sister, Sheila Leal Guo.
“Maybe tomorrow or next week, charges of money laundering will be filed against her (Sheila) and Alice Guo and several others,” Ty said.
Guo is at the center of the Senate inquiry into the raided Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, a POGO hub in Bamban, where authorities seized a horde of documents, saying she was involved in the processing of documents for its operations.
The AMLC told the inquiry that it has already ordered a freeze on the cash and assets of personalities behind the operation of the POGO hub, including P251 million in cash and around P465 million worth of assets.
Sheila and Cassandra Li Ong were taken into custody by Indonesian authorities last week and brought back to the country.
Ty said the DOJ will initiate an investigation not only on the lawyer who notarized the counter-affidavit of Guo in her qualified human trafficking case before the DOJ but also on the lawyers who represented her in the preliminary investigation of the case for misleading the authorities.
To recall, Guo’s lawyer, Stephen David, was quoted in several interviews that she was able to talk with her client last August 19, and she reportedly told him that she was still in the country.
Ty said an administrative case against the said lawyers can be lodged before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines or the Supreme Court.
ONG ADMITS ROLE
Ong said she first flew to Singapore from Manila and then later to Malaysia where she met with the Guos. Ong said she and the Guos traveled to Batam, Indonesia where she and Shiela were arrested.
“Sino ang kasama niyo sa Singapore? (Who were you with in Singapore)” Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., one of the joint panel’s co-chairmen, asked Ong who said: “Wesley Guo, Alice Guo, and Shiela Guo.”
Ong, who is detained at the House after being cited in contempt for snubbing the quad comm’s summons, has been charged and underwent inquest proceedings last Aug. 23 for violations under Section 1(c) of Presidential Decree No. 1829 and Section 45(h) of Commonwealth Act No. 613, also known as the “Philippine Immigration Act of 1940.”
After Ong admitted that she was in a relationship with Wesley, Abante asked Ong, “A, boyfriend niyo si Wesley Guo, therefore, malapit ka kay Alice Guo? (So, Wesley Guo is your boyfriend, therefore you are close to Alice Guo?)” to which she replied, “Kakilala siyempre, sister po siya ng boyfriend ko (Of course, I know her, she’s my boyfriend’s sister).”
Ong also confirmed that she met with the Guo siblings in Singapore before her deportation but initially denied being “related to any POGO,” saying her business is real estate: “Nagre-rent lang sa mga building (We’re just renting out buildings).”
However, on the questioning of Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez (PL, 1-Rider) Ong, who was accompanied by her lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, eventually admitted working for the raided Porac POGO Lucky South 99 and Whirlwind Corp., the company that leased the land to Lucky South, in which she has a 58 percent stake.
“Ms. Ong, you are linked to some corporations, like Whirlwind and Lucky South 99?” Gutierrez asked. “Are you associated with the corporations Whirlwind and Lucky South 99?” to which Ong, said: “Yes po.”
Ong said that she did not start with Lucky South 99 as an executive assistant but asked to be allowed not to reveal her first job “for privacy reasons po.”
She, however, stressed that she only processed the applications of Lucky South 99 and Whirlwind before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Did you deal with applications of other corporations, not only Whirlwind? Would you care to share with us what other corporations you have dealt with?” Gutierrez said, to which Ong replied: “Lucky South po, Lucky South 99.”
Ong, however, denied that former presidential spokesman Harry Roque is an incorporator of Lucky South, saying she is only her lawyer for Whirlwind Corp.–the same explanation Roque earlier offered to the four House committees.
Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) Chair Alejandro Tengco earlier said Roque went to his office last year with Ong to discuss the firm’s unpaid “arrears” worth $500,000, prompting lawmakers to suspect that the ex-Duterte’s spokesman was lawyering for Lucky South 99. — With Ashzel Hachero and Wendell Vigilia
