TARLAKENYO — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed a criminal tax evasion complaint on Thursday against dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Leal Guo at the Department of Justice, alleging a tax deficiency of approximately P1.008 billion.
The complaint accuses Guo of failing to pay the correct taxes and failing to file her income tax returns for five consecutive years, from 2019 to 2023.
According to the revenue authority, the case stems from an ongoing investigation into Guo’s financial records, drawing heavily from her own May 22, 2024, Senate testimony during an inquiry into a raided Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Barangay Anupul, just behind the municipal hall.
During that Senate hearing, Guo admitted to owning various real estate properties, vehicles, and interests in several corporations. Using the expenditure method to reconstruct her financial records, the BIR discovered that her declared earnings were vastly insufficient to justify her documented expenditures, transactions, and acquisitions. Investigators uncovered significant assets linked to the former mayor, including real estate properties, motor vehicles, shares of stock, bank transactions, and a helicopter, concluding that she had substantial undeclared income.
Guo’s case is the largest of five criminal tax complaints submitted by the bureau on Thursday, June 11, 2026, which altogether involve an estimated total tax deficiency of more than P1.46 billion. These filings bring the total number of tax evasion cases submitted to state prosecutors to 140 in the first five months of 2026.
“These cases are about accountability and fairness, holding violators answerable under the law while protecting the millions of taxpayers and businesses who comply and pay the correct taxes due,” BIR commissioner Charlito Martin Mendoza said in a statement.
Mendoza added that the BIR will continue pursuing cases against tax evaders, illicit traders, and delinquent taxpayers as part of its enforcement campaign.
At the time of press, the former mayor has not made any statement regarding the latest case filed against her.
Guo, whose true identity was later revealed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to be Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, rose to prominence when she was elected mayor of the municipality of Bamban, Tarlac, in 2022. Her political career abruptly unraveled in 2024 following a high-profile authorities’ raid on a massive, illegal POGO compound operating right behind the Bamban municipal hall.
The subsequent Senate investigation exposed severe anomalies regarding her background. Guo gave vague, contradictory answers about her childhood, claiming she was a homeschooled Filipino raised on a farm. However, a fingerprint match by the NBI confirmed she had entered the Philippines as a 13-year-old Chinese citizen in 2003.
Following her suspension and eventual dismissal from public office, Guo fled the country in mid-2024 but was apprehended by Interpol in Indonesia and returned to the Philippines to face justice. She has since been found guilty of qualified human trafficking in connection with the Bamban POGO operations and remains incarcerated while facing a barrage of other legal battles, including graft, money laundering, and now, massive tax evasion.
