Senator Sherwin Gatchalian presented on Monday an official receipt from Tarlac II Electric Cooperative, Inc., stating that the receipt shows Alice Guo, during her tenure as mayor, paid millions of pesos in electricity bills for the raided Bamban POGO center in Tarlac province.
During the Senate's investigation into illegal POGOs, the senator revealed that Guo paid the following electricity bills for the POGO center using her own account in cash or by check:
December 29, 2022: Cash payment of 28 million pesos
September 21, 2022: Payment by check of 5.4 million pesos
July 2023: Payment by check of 6.4 million pesos
July 26, 2023: Payment by check of 3.17 million pesos
January 4, 2024: Cash payment of 3.44 million pesos
January 8, 2024: Payment by check of 5.308 million pesos
Gatchalian questioned, "You were already the mayor when making payments to Tarelco. You previously stated you had no ties with POGO, but without electricity, there is no POGO. It's that simple, isn't it? If you don't pay their electricity bills, there would be no POGO. Nothing to raid, no human trafficking, no torture, nothing."
Gatchalian believes that the amounts Guo paid exactly correspond to the scale of the POGO center, thus she absolutely knew what was happening there. Guo refused to respond to Gatchalian's revelations and stated she is facing charges for allegedly being involved in the Bamban POGO operations.
Besides direct payments, Gatchalian revealed that Guo's other companies also made payments to Tarelco: "In 2020, QJJ Farm made direct payments to Tarelco on different dates. In 2021 and 2022, QJJ Farm also made direct payments to Tarelco in different amounts, respectively 1.3 million pesos and 5 million pesos. In 2023, QSeed Genetics made direct payments to Tarelco on different dates, respectively 6 million pesos and 2.6 million pesos. So who exactly is the president of QSeed Genetics?"
This time, Guo finally admitted it was her. Gatchalian then stated that besides using QSeed Genetics to pay the electricity bills of the Bamban POGO center, the company was not declared in Guo's assets, liabilities, and net worth statement.
However, despite Gatchalian's firm claim that these documents indicate her "active involvement" in the Bamban POGO operations, Guo insists she did not participate in these activities. She maintains that before becoming mayor, she had already divested from Baofu Real Estate Development Company, which owned the land for building the POGO center.
