{"id":14128,"date":"2024-07-30T18:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T10:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/net-trends.com\/?p=14128"},"modified":"2024-07-30T18:59:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T10:59:00","slug":"no-1-trending-alice-guo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/net-trends.com\/news\/no-1-trending-alice-guo\/","title":{"rendered":"No.1 Trending: Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban Tarlac"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bamban Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo who’s suspected of being a Chinese asset<\/strong> and have an Involvement of POGO.<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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The Senate on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for Alice Guo merely four months after she was catapulted into the national spotlight after “failing to recall” details of “growing up on a farm” as she faced questions from lawmakers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 33-year-old mayor has been faced with several accusations, such as having a fake identity, being a Chinese spy, and being part of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) syndicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TARLAC, Philippines \u2013 Two years ago, 35-year-old Alice Guo was celebrated for being the first female mayor of Bamban, a small, second-class municipality in the province of Tarlac, north of Manila.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, she\u2019s the subject of memes after she claimed at a Senate hearing that she doesn\u2019t remember much about her life: not the house where she was born, not why her birth was registered only 17 years later, not what homeschool program she availed herself of until high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who presided over the May 7 hearing on the Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO) raided in Bamban, could not help but wonder: Is this woman, who \u201ccame out of nowhere\u201d to become mayor, in fact an \u201casset\u201d planted by China to infiltrate Philippine politics and government?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the hearing, Alice Guo, 37, was questioned about her alleged involvement in the two illegal POGOs and the hub that accommodated them: Hongsheng Gaming Technology Incorporated and Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, located in the Baofu Compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hongsheng was raided by law enforcers in February 2023. Three months later, another POGO with a different set of incorporators, Zun Yuan, took its place in the same compound. That, too, was raided by an inter-agency government team in March 2024. Authorities link these POGOs to scam operations, trafficking, and even cyber attacks on government websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guo admitted that, as a private citizen, she helped Hongsheng Gaming get the municipal council\u2019s approval to operate in Bamban. At the time, she owned half of Baofu. She claimed that she sold it just before she ran for mayor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would be putting it too simply, as far as Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, whose committee is jointly probing the Tarlac POGOs with Hontiveros, is concerned. In an interview on ANC Headstart on Thursday, May 16, he said Guo\u2019s business partner was a fugitive who escaped during the raid via tunnels in the 14 villas in the POGO complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since she owned the land, she must have known about the existence of those tunnels. Why would there be tunnels in the first place? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Senate also suspects that Zun Yuan could be a fake company since its incorporators could not be located. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rappler used information from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as details revealed during the Senate hearing \u2013 to piece together what we can about Guo\u2019s background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History of Mayor Alice Guo in Bamban Tarlac<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some residents of Bamban, including those from barangay Virgen de los Remedios, said that Alice Guo lived and grew up there, adding that she also has a sibling. Alice Guo has stated that her family raised pigs for a living and that she grew up on a farm. She also claimed to have spent her teenage life in Concepcion, Tarlac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residency<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Alice Guo’s Certificate of Candidacy for Mayor filed before the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in 2021, she declared herself unmarried and claimed lifelong residency in the Philippines, residing at her registered address in Bamban for 18 years by that time. It was revealed that she registered as a voter of Bamban in April 2021, just 13 months before the 2022 general elections, while COMELEC spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said that she had registered in 2018.] She also claimed to have held a Philippine passport, the only one she possesses, since when she was between 17 and 19 years old, around 2003 to 2005. Her family’s SIRV application documents indicate that, as Guo Hua Ping, she also holds a Chinese passport and migrated to the Philippines on January 12, 2003, at the age of 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal life<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alice Guo was born on July 12*, 1986, but her birth was registered only 17 years later. She grew up on a farm, raising hogs with her father, Jian Zhong Guo, who adopted the Filipino name Angelito. There is no information on the identity of her mother so far<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice Guo claimed to have been homeschooled until high school, but couldn\u2019t name the program or school affiliation of her teacher, whose name also escaped her. She has no school records, and didn\u2019t attend college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice Guo, who is single, claims in her certificate of candidacy to have lived in the Philippines all her life. At the time of her electoral run, when she was 35 years old, she said she had been a resident of Bamban, specifically of Barangay Virgen delos Remedios, for 18 years and 2 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means she was not in Bamban, or at least in her current residence, in the 17 years that her birth was not registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hontiveros has pointed out the known practice of Chinese nationals, who want to obtain Philippine passports, of pretending that they are Philippine-born individuals registering their births belatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the registration records of her many companies, Alice Guo listed two other residences: one in Marilao, Bulacan, and another in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Senate hearing, Alice Guo said she did not grow up with her Filipino mother. Netizens who tried to search for her mother found a post on the Bamban local government\u2019s website, where the mayor greeted \u201cmy Mommy Patty and cheerleader 24\/7\u201d on her birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Observers noted, however, that the woman referred to as \u201cMommy\u201d could be a friend from the municipal government. The post has since been deleted\u2013 if online sleuths are to be believed \u2013 on May 8, or a day after senators raised questions about Guo\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electoral campaign<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco,Guo registered as a voter only in 2018. At that time, she would have been 31 or 32 years old already. Filipinos are eligible for voter registration when they turn 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alice Guo ran for mayor in the 2022 election, her first foray into politics. An independent candidate, she won a seven-cornered fight. Garnering 16,503 votes, she defeated her closest rival, barangay chief Joey Salting, by only 468 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She managed the feat spending only P134,000 for her campaign, as declared in her Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE). The expenses went to gas, food, bottled water, printing and distribution of tarpaulins, and counsel fees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her total campaign expenses was only P1,024 short of P135,024, the maximum permitted by law for Bamban\u2019s voter population of 45,008 at the time, based on the allowable amount of P3 per voter which election practitioners have long dismissed as unrealistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Senate hearing, Alice Guo said the previous Duterte administration and her hog-raiser friends helped her in her mayoral campaign. It was former president Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s administration tool that allowed the entry of POGOs \u2013 and, with them, an influx of Chinese workers, both legal and illegal \u2013 into the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least two sources sent Rappler a photo of a Chinese-language newspaper clipping, which has since made the rounds of social media, showing ad placements congratulating Alice Guo for winning the mayoral race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Securities and Exchange Commission records showed that before Alice Guo entered politics, she had been a businesswoman for some time. She has been an incorporator and a major shareholder of at least 11 companies since 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are Alice Guo\u2019s companies and their registration dates with the SEC:<\/p>\n\n\n\n