{"id":777017478,"date":"2024-07-23T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T12:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777017478"},"modified":"2026-04-22T07:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:55:13","slug":"the-philippines-suspended-mayor-alice-guo-misses-another-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-suspended-mayor-alice-guo-misses-another-hearing","title":{"rendered":"The Philippines: suspended mayor Alice Guo misses another hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Alice Guo failed to attend the Department of Justice hearing on human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.-  On Monday (July 22), Alice Guo,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/bamban-mayor-suspended-over-alleged-gaming-links\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the suspended mayor of Bamban<\/a>, Tarlac, was again absent from the Department of Justice (DOJ) preliminary hearing regarding the human trafficking charges filed against her and other co-respondents. She had also failed to appear on July 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Guo and her co-respondents were granted <strong>an extension until August 6<\/strong> to submit counter-affidavits, while the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) have added to their complaint based on the testimony of four new witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Winston Casio<\/strong>, an official from the PAOCC, said the witnesses will attest to not being allowed to leave the premises of gaming operators. He said another Filipino respondent, who was allegedly involved in the management of Zun Yuan, Baofu and Hongsheng Gaming Corporation, has been added to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If proven guilty, Guo and others implicated could be sentenced to life imprisonment and fined from PHP2 to PHP5m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last Week, Guo <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/suspended-mayor-alice-guo-responds-to-senators-accusations\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">issued a statement<\/a> against senators&nbsp;<strong>Risa Hontiveros<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>Sherwin Gatchalia<\/strong>. She said they should focus their attention on \u201cmany critical issues such as national security, poverty, unemployment, food shortage, health care delivery, environmental degradation, and human rights violations\u201d instead of \u201cthreatening her with arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alice Guo failed to attend the Department of Justice hearing on human trafficking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777009718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Alice Guo, the suspended mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, again failed to attend a Department of Justice hearing concerning human trafficking charges linked to gaming operators. New witnesses have provided testimony alleging confinement at gaming premises, leading to an expanded complaint by PAOCC and CIDG. Guo and co-respondents have until August 6 to submit counter-affidavits, facing potential life imprisonment and substantial fines if found guilty.","focusai_entities":"Alice Guo, Department of Justice (DOJ), Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Winston Casio, Zun Yuan, Baofu, Hongsheng Gaming Corporation, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian","focusai_location":"Philippines, Bamban, Tarlac","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on POGO Licensing?","query":"What are the potential implications of these human trafficking charges for the broader POGO licensing framework and operational stability in the Philippines?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Outlook?","query":"How might the Department of Justice's aggressive stance on these allegations influence future regulatory enforcement actions and compliance expectations for iGaming operators in the region?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[20326],"class_list":["post-777017478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-illegal-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777017478"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777017485,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777017478\/revisions\/777017485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777009718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777017478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777017478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777017478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}