There’s a list of seven names whose assets the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) wants frozen. Alice Guo is one of those names. Everyone’s looking for Alice Guo nowadays. She’s been ignoring the Senate’s summons to its investigation of illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs, and now a warrant is out for her arrest. She couldn’t seem to be found. Not even in her supposed farm.
This hype over Mayor Guo is taking attention away from another name on that AMLC list that might be more consequential in the search for the bottomline of offshore gaming operators dabbling in nefarious business.
That name is Hongjiang Yang. The brother of Michael Yang, who used to be economic adviser to former president Rodrigo Duterte, and a central figure in the Pharmally scandal of overpriced, substandard government-purchased Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this video incarnation of Rappler’s political intelligencer series Inside Track, Rappler senior reporter Lian Buan connects the dots that link the Bamban POGO mess to, in the words of Senator Risa Hontiveros, the “one big, happy Pharmally”. – Rappler.com
Presenter, writer: Lian Buan
Producer, video editor: Cara Oliver
Producer: JC Gotinga
Videographer: Jeff Digma
Lighting: Naoki Mengua
Animation, graphics: Nico Villarete
Supervising editor: Chay Hofileña
Supervising producer: Beth Frondoso