MANILA — Cassandra Li Ong, the alleged authorized representative of the shuttered Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator hub Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga, was last traced to Japan earlier this year shortly after her release from detention, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).
PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said Ong was tracked by their team in Japan sometime in the first quarter of 2024.
“That was our last confirmed location. After that, we have no idea where she went,” Casio said in a Saturday press briefing.
He added that Ong’s arrest warrant, issued around March or May, aligned with the timeline of their final tracker signal, also in the first quarter.
Ong, along with Bamban Mayor Alice Guo and her supposed sister Sheila Guo, was apprehended by Indonesian authorities in August 2024 as “suspicious foreigners.”
The trio was deported to the Philippines to face alleged immigration violations, including illegal exit through unofficial ports.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian told the Senate on Friday that Ong was released during the transition between the 19th and 20th Congresses.
“At that point, there was no case against her,” he noted.
Ong is now wanted for a qualified human trafficking case in which former Duterte spokesperson Harry Roque is a co-accused. Casio clarified that no hold departure order had been issued against Ong at the time she left the country.