The Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality on Monday, September 9, cited dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo in contempt, for the second time.
This, after Guo insisted that she is born in Tarlac and not in China and therefore, is a Filipino.
She also refused to confirm that she is a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping, despite being confronted with documents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) showing her fingerprints as Alice Guo, matching that of Guo Hua Ping.
Guo also refused to disclose who was giving her death threats and insisting the need to reveal it in an executive session which senators refused to accede to.
“Alice Guo is continuing to lie to this committee despite glaring evidence that she is a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping, whose father Jian Zhong Guo is Chinese based on her own declaration in this committee, and whose mother Lin Wen Yi is also Chinese based on her own declarations in bank documents by the way verified by the AMLC,” Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate women and children’s panel said.
“This is a blatant defiance of the legislative's constitutional power of inquiry. Lumalabas na pinaglalaruan mo ang aming batas at pinapaikot mo ang mga Pilipino, pero ibahin mo ang Senado,” she stressed.
Guo denied she is Guo Hua Ping saying all she knows is that she is Alice Guo.
“Basta alam ko, ako po si Alice Guo. At pasensya na rin po kung hindi kayo naniniwala,” she told the panel.
“Ang tatay ko po si Guo Jian Zhong po at hindi ko po nanay si Lin Wen Yi (my father is Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wen Yi is not my mother),” Guo said.
Sen. Loren Legarda lamented that Guo has been lying from the start of the hearing, despite having taken an oath.
“Umpisa pa lang, iniinsist siya, pinagpipilitan niyang ipinanganak sa Tarlac. Wala na pong maniniwala ‘yan, alam na po natin ‘yan (From the start, she is insisting she was born in Tarlac. Nobody will believe that. We already know that),” she emphasized.
Hontiveros then moved to cite the former mayor in contempt; Sen. Joel Villanueva seconded her motion.
Guo left the country last July and was apprehended in Indonesia and brought back to the Philippines last week.
She is being linked to the human trafficking operations of an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) hub in her town. Law enforcement authorities raided the said hub.
Via yacht
Guo, during the hearing, also confirmed that she and her sister Shiela Guo, who earlier testified how they “escaped,” that they left the country by sea.
According to Alice, they left the Philippines through boats. She said they boarded a yacht in a port in Metro Manila.
When senators pressed her to provide the name of the person who facilitated their yacht ride and the owner of the yacht, Guo refused. Guo said she only recalled the yacht had “wings” stickers and numbers on it.
However, she was forced to write the name of the person who helped facilitate their trip but appealed to the senators not to divulge the name at the hearing, saying she fears for her safety due to the death threats she has been receiving. She also said their mobile phones were confiscated by the person.
According to Guo, they rode the yacht for a few hours and transferred to a bigger boat but doesn’t know the exact location where they made the transfer because it was still dark.
Upon transferring to a bigger boat, the former mayor said they stayed in one room for about three to five days but they were not allowed to go out. Guo admitted, however, that the second boat ride made her apprehensive. “Kung puwede lang umatras, aatras na po ako...Nakakatakot po talaga. Guso ko na po bumalik. (If I can only back out, I would have. I was scared. I wanted to go back),” she said.
She also could not provide the exact location in Malaysia where they entered because they were not instructed not to look around. During a Senate hearing last August 27, Shiela testified that they—together with Alice and Wesley Guo, left the Philippines by riding several boats.
According to Shiela, the three of them were fetched by a van from their van in Tarlac and traveled southbound around dinner time to midnight. Shiela said they boarded at least three boats, a small white boat, then transferred to a bigger boat, then rode another small boat before arriving in Malaysia.
Alice’s custody
Also during the hearing, Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino raised the issue of her custody.
According to Tolentino, the Senate should be the primary institution that should have custody of Guo. The senator specifically mentioned Guo's graft charge before the Capas, Tarlac Regional Trial Court Branch (RTC) 109.
Citing RA 10660, Tolentino said that once the Office of the Ombudsman files a case, “cases falling under the jurisdiction of the Regional Trial Court under this section shall be tried in a judicial region other than where the official holds office.”
Tolentino noted that Guo's case was filed in Tarlac, the same judicial region where she was formerly a mayor. But a circular issued by the Office of the Court Administrator states that all cases related to RA 10660 should be filed in the nearest RTC of the next judicial region.
In this case, he said the graft case against Guo should have been filed in Valenzuela City.
But Romeo Benitez, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Assistant Secretary for Legal and Legislative Affairs said that "maybe the benchmark is that the Office of the Ombudsman believes at the time the information was referred for filing before the RTC of Tarlac is that the good mayor is no longer an incumbent official.”
But Tolentino argued that when the crime took place, Guo was still the incumbent mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
"As I mentioned a while ago, that the OCA Circular, the Office of the Court Administrator, took cognizance of the rationale, the spirit behind the law, and that is to prevent influence, exert influence," he said.
“Ang tagal nag-mayor nito. Talagang maimpluwensiya pa siya doon (She was mayor for a long time. She really has influence over that area),” he added.
Tolentino then expressed his belief that only the Senate has a “legal” warrant of arrest against Guo.
“But since the good chairperson has already made a ruling, that she be returned to the custodial center, her original stint in the custodial center, was based on, as what the Usec said, ako na ito (this is me): a 'flawed jurisdictional application of RA 10660,” he said.
In response, Hontiveros said the panel would write to the presiding judge of the Capas RTC Branch 109 and the Office of the Ombudsman and until such time that this gets clarified, Guo would remain under the custody of the PNP.
"Questioning the jurisdiction of the court is valid but this but there may be a more proper venue and the committee will write the good court and the Office of the Ombudsman," Hontiveros said.