MANILA, Philippines — Contempt orders against dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo, businessman Tony Yang, police Maj. Leo Laraga and Lucky South 99 representative Cassandra Ong were lifted on Thursday by the quad committee of the House of Representatives.
Guo will remain in detention on multiple charges. Yang is confined at St. Luke’s Hospital in Taguig City and will remain under the custody of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission. Ong and Laraga will be released from detention.
“We welcome the move of the quad comm and we are thankful that the spirit of the season has permeated their souls,” Ong’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said.
Wrapping up its 13th hearing – the last for this year – the quad comm led by Rep. Robert Ace Barbers granted Rep. Stephen Paduano’s motion to lift the contempt and detention orders against Guo, Yang, Laraga and Ong “in the spirit of Christmas.”
The quad comm will resume its probe on Jan. 13, when the lower House resumes its regular session.
Ong was released from detention after showing mental health problems, Barbers said.
She was detained at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City for almost four months. The quad comm had cited her in contempt for lying and evading questioning, leading to her detention in August.
Ong, 24, is an ally of Guo, who has been suspected of espionage.
Guo is facing qualified human trafficking, graft and money laundering charges due to her involvement in Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).
A material misrepresentation complaint was filed over her certificate of candidacy in the 2022 polls, following a probe into her identity as alleged Chinese spy Guo Hua Ping.
Guo is currently detained at the Pasig City Jail.
Guo and her family own several businesses in the country, including Baofu Land, which was allegedly involved in the illegal operations of Zun Yuan Technology Inc., a POGO hub in Bamban raided by the PAOCC for human trafficking.
Yang, meanwhile, has a pending case for falsifying documents, perjury and violations of the Anti-Alias Law. He is the eldest brother of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s economic adviser Michael Yang, alleged architect of the Chinese POGO network.
Yang was also implicated with his brother in the Pharmally procurement scandal and other alleged criminal activities tied to POGOs.
As for Laraga, he was among personalities being probed by the quad comm for extrajudicial killings that reportedly transpired during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.