Ben Madilynn
AFTER months of hiding, dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo is back again in public eyes following her apprehension in Indonesia and deportation to the Philippines.
Guo, escorted by Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. and Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief General Rommel Marbil, arrived in a private hangar at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) around 1:30 a.m. Friday, September 6, 2024.
The embattled former mayor was immediately taken into custody by the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in line with the warrant of arrest issued against her by a Capas, Tarlac court over the graft and corruption cases filed against her by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
She underwent booking procedure where her fingerprint and mugshot were taken, as well as physical and medical examination before she was asked to put on an orange detainee shirt and a handcuff.
Abalos and Marbil presented Guo in a press conference but she had her back to the members of the media almost all the time.
Abalos said according to Guo, she left the country due to the death threats she had been receiving.
“Sabi ni Alice natatakot siya sa buhay nya kaya siya umalis sa bansa (Alice said she left due to the death threats),” he said.
“Sabi natin sabihin mo lahat at poproteksyunan ka ng police…important malaman natin ang totoo (I told her to tell us everything and the police will protect her…What’s important is we will know the truth),” he added.
Guo was later brought to the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame where she will be detained.
Guo is currently the center of the Senate investigation on the raided illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) hub in Bamban, Tarlac that was allegedly involved in various criminal activities, including human trafficking, illegal detention, scamming, surveillance and hacking of government websites, and even murder.
The last time she was seen in public was in May when she attended a Senate hearing, before the National Bureau of Investigation ruled that she is one and the same person as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping through a fingerprint matching.
Before this, Guo insisted that she is a Filipino national who grew up taking care of pigs in their farm.
She said she was homeschooled but there was a record showing that she attended a regular elementary school in Quezon City.
Her only straw in proving her Filipino nationality is her mother, Amelia Leal Go, who, as indicated in her birth certificate, does not have any record with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Guo’s refusal to show up in the Senate probe prompted the committee to issue an arrest order against her, which was the basis of her arrest in Indonesia late in the evening of September 3.
Also covered by the arrest order were her alleged parents and siblings Seimen, Wesley and Shiela.
Shiela was also intercepted in Indonesia on August 21.
She said they left the country one evening in July using three boats, but lawmakers refused to believe this considering the stamps in their passports, which indicate that they “escaped” by plane. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)
