The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is expected to resolve within this month of October the deportation case against Shiela Guo, the sister of dismissed mayor Alice L. Guo of Bamban, Tarlac.
BI Board of Special Inquiry (BSI) Chairman Gulberto U. Repizo said on Friday, Oct. 4, once the bureau receives the position paper from Shiela's lawyers “we might be using 15 days to resolve).”
The BSI conducted a clarificatory hearing on the case that Shiela attended.
During the hearing, Repizo said Shiela, who is under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), was told to submit her position paper.
“Tatlong araw pa simula ngayon meron silang pitong araw para magsubmit simultaneously ng position paper nila (Three days from now, Shiela’s camp will be given seven days to submit the position paper),” said Repizo.
He also said the findings and recommendations of the BSI will be submitted to the BI’s Board of Commissioners composed of Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado and Deputy Commissioners Daniel Laogan and Aldwin Alegre "to make the final ruling."
“Ayaw kong pangunahan ang Board of Commissioners kung kailan nila dedesisyunan (I don’t want to pre-empt when the Board of Commissioner will come out with its ruling),” he said.
At the same time, Repizo said the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) will be submitting to the BI a list of around 1,800 who have doubtful Philippine citizenships and wrong registrations.
“So napakarami nito (This is so many). This is a big national security issue that na ‘di natin pwede pabayaan (that we can just condone). Pero hindi naman tayo pwede basta mantapak ng karapatan ng tao (But we cannot just step on the rights of people),” he also said.
Should a ruling come out that order would be for deportation, the BI previously said that “Shiela will be deported only after the resolution of all pending criminal cases filed against her and completion of all other liabilities in the country."
Upon her return to the Philippines on Aug. 22 after her capture in Indonesia, the BI charged Shiela with undesirability and misrepresentation as a Filipino national after being found in possession of a Chinese passport with the name Zhang Mier.
Shiela is currently facing before the Pasay City court a charge for disobedience to summons issued by the Senate in violation of the Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and for using a fake Philippine passport in violation of Section 22, paragraph (b)(2) of Republic Act (RA) No. 11983, the new Philippine Passport Act.
There is also a pending money laundering case filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Shiela.