Convicted former Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo was served a new arrest warrant on the night of Friday, Aug. 14, this time for three counts of graft under Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, according to a report by The Philippine Star. The warrant adds a fresh criminal case to a mounting list of charges against a figure who became the face of the country's offshore gaming corruption scandal.
The Manila Police District-Jose Abad Santos Police Station served the warrant at around 6 p.m. inside the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong, where Guo has been imprisoned since December 2025 after a Pasig court sentenced her to life imprisonment for qualified human trafficking.
What the new case alleges
Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 67 issued the graft warrants against Guo and 11 co-accused on Aug. 7, The Philippine Star reported, though the case's underlying allegations were not detailed in available reporting beyond the graft charge itself. The court set bail at ₱90,000 per count. Guo now faces at least three distinct sets of criminal liability: the graft case, the trafficking conviction on appeal, and a separate tax evasion case.
Guo and two co-accused were found guilty in November 2025 of organizing human trafficking at Baofu Compound, a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub based in Bamban that became the centerpiece of Senate investigations into the offshore gambling industry's links to scam operations and trafficking. The Bureau of Internal Revenue has separately pursued Guo for failing to pay taxes amounting to ₱1.008 billion, inclusive of surcharges and interest, according to the same Philippine Star report.
Context: a scandal that reshaped POGO politics
Guo's case became a national flashpoint in 2024 after senators questioned her true identity and nationality during hearings into the Bamban POGO compound, which investigators linked to trafficking, cyber-fraud, and organized crime. She left the country and was later located and returned to the Philippines to face prosecution — developments that were extensively covered by Philippine media at the time. Her November 2025 conviction for qualified human trafficking, for which she is serving a life sentence, was the first major courtroom outcome of that scandal.
The new graft warrant signals that prosecutors are continuing to build additional cases against Guo even after securing a conviction, reflecting the scale of alleged wrongdoing tied to the Bamban compound and continued scrutiny of local officials who enabled or profited from POGO operations before the industry was banned.
What remains unknown
Available reporting does not specify the particular acts underlying the new graft charges, who Guo's 11 co-accused are, or whether she has responded publicly to the latest warrant. Pulpulitiko was unable to independently verify additional details beyond what has been reported and will update this story as more information becomes available, including any statement from Guo's legal counsel or the Sandiganbayan and Ombudsman offices that may have referred related complaints.
Sources
- New arrest warrant out vs Alice Guo — The Philippine Star, Aug. 16, 2026