Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian revealed on September 12 that three foreign nationals associated with Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), suspected to be Chinese, allegedly aided the former mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, Alice Guo, in hiding abroad after her dismissal.
The three individuals are Duanren Wu, Zhang Jie, and Huang Zhiyang. Gatchalian noted that these individuals "booked hotels and assisted with her travel arrangements." He also mentioned that in the video of Guo's arrest, there were people speaking Chinese (both Fujianese and Mandarin) in the background. Thus, he pointed out that Guo's contacts abroad were evidently Chinese.
In a previous hearing, Mr. Wu was identified as a founder of Whirlwind Company, which rented a property called Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga.
Mr. Huang was one of the partners of Guo in Baofu Land Development, which rented land in Bamban, Tarlac. Reportedly, Huang is a Chinese fugitive found with five passports during a raid in Clark, and he is considered the "head of all illegal POGOs."
Mr. Zhang was reportedly the former president of Lucky South 99, a POGO company located in Porac, Pampanga.
It is still unclear whether Guo has confirmed any of these three individuals as the person who helped her escape from the Philippines. In a Senate hearing on Monday, Guo stated that they started their escape from the Philippines on a yacht from the capital region, but she refused to disclose who assisted them. Under questioning by senators, she eventually wrote down the name of the person on paper.
Senator Risa Hontiveros noted that the person Guo referred to the senators had been mentioned in a previous hearing, and Senate Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada hinted that the person Guo wrote down was "the head of all POGO bosses," holding passports from St. Kitts and Nevis, China, Cyprus, Dominica, and Cambodia.