A noteworthy aspect in the conviction of former mayor Alice Guo is the speed of the legal proceedings.
The criminal complaint for qualified human trafficking was filed against her in June last year. Yesterday, Guo – a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping who faked her Filipino citizenship to run for mayor of Bamban town in Tarlac – was convicted and sentenced to life in prison together with seven of her co-defendants.
That’s 17 months from the filing of the complaint and 14 months from her arrest to conviction. The ruling is expected to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. The higher courts should not disappoint, and match if not top the pace of the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 167 in resolving the case.
The case stemmed from Guo’s involvement in a Philippine offshore gaming operator hub in her private compound in Bamban that was raided in 2023 and 2024. Law enforcers said the POGO operators engaged in kidnapping and torture of over 700 human trafficking victims, most of them foreigners, who were forced to operate the scam hub.
Apart from imposing the life term, the Pasig RTC ordered the forfeiture of the sprawling POGO compound, which law enforcement officials said may be repurposed into a government center.
Guo fled to Indonesia but was arrested in September 2024 and turned over to the Philippine government. Her case is also a reminder that international cooperation has made the world a smaller place for fugitives from justice.
Like Guo and accused murderer Arnolfo Teves, other people wanted by the government, foremost of them resigned Ako Bicol party-list congressman Elizaldy Co who was charged before the Sandiganbayan this week, can be brought back to the country to face trial.
And their trial should proceed at the pace of the judicial proceedings for Alice Guo and her co-defendants. A faster pace would be even better.