Ben Madilynn
DISMISSED Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo will be back to the Senate on Monday, September 9, 2024, for the resumption of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality inquiry into the raided illegal Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac.
Guo was deported back in the Philippines on Friday, September 7, following her arrest in Indonesia on the basis of an arrest order issued by the Senate committee.
Hours before her arrival, a Capas, Tarlac court issued an arrest warrant against her over a graft and corruption complaint filed against her by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
The arrest warrant issued by the court takes precedence over the arrest order issued by the Senate.
The court’s Branch 109 committed Guo to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Facility in Camp Crame after she refused to post a P180,000 bail for the said cases.
The court, however, allowed Guo to temporarily leave her detention cell in order to attend the Senate hearing, provided that the PNP will impose a strict security protocol for her.
PNP Public Information Office (PIO) chief Colonel Jean Fajardo ensured the provision of security for Guo’s attendance at the Senate hearing.
The last time Guo attended the Senate investigation was in May, prompting the panel to issue an arrest order against her and the rest of her immediate family, including her alleged parents and three siblings.
‘Escape’
Guo “escaped” to Malaysia.
During her attendance at the Senate investigation, Guo’s sister Sheila, who was arrested by Indonesian immigration authorities a week before the former mayor’s apprehension, said they boarded a boat from a province in Southern Luzon to “escape.” One of their supposed brother, Wesley, was with them.
She said they transferred to two more boats before reaching Malaysia.
Sheila said they also went to Singapore via plane to meet their parents.
Lawmakers, however, refused to believe Sheila’s narration of how they were able to leave the country unnoticed considering the stamps on their passports.
Sheila was apprehended with Cassandra Li Ong, the authorized representative of the raided illegal Pogo hub in Porac, Pampanga.
Ong was arrested on the basis of an arrest order issued by the House of Representative Committee, which is conducting an inquiry on the Porac Pogo.
She was currently under the custody of the chamber, but it approved that she be brought to the Senate to testify in the Senate investigation, particularly to shed light on Guo’s escape.
Refusal to appear
In a media forum, Ong’s legal counsel Ferdinand Topacio said his client refuses to appear in the Senate inquiry and told him that she would rather go to jail.
“Ang apela niya sa kaniya (Ong) mismo ito nanggaling. Kung gusto niyong ikulong, ikulong n’yo na po sabi niya ‘kahit sa Women’s Correctional tatanggapin ko na huwag lang akong pahiyain niyo sa harap ng milyon milyong mga tao’,” Ong added.
(The appeal came directly from her (Ong). She said, “If you want to imprison me, go ahead, even in the Women’s Correctional, I’ll accept it. Just don’t humiliate me in front of millions of people.”)
Ong was confined in a hospital following a “mental breakdown” from last week’s house inquiry, where she was grilled by lawmakers on her alleged involvement in illegal Pogo.
In his third State of the Nation Address (Sona), President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced the total Pogo ban in the country following the raid in Bamban and Porac, which exposed its involvement in criminal activities like human trafficking, scamming, and even murder. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)
