Guo, 40 others to attend Senate probe today

MANILA, Philippines — Dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo, her alleged boyfriend Mayor Liseldo Calugay of Sual, Pangasinan and over 40 other resource persons are expected to attend today’s Senate public hearing on reported crimes involving Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), such as scamming and human trafficking.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chair of the Senate committee on women, children and family affairs, is still waiting for the order of Valenzuela City Executive Judge Mateo Altajeros, who has jurisdiction over Guo Hua Ping’s graft case.

Guo’s criminal case was transferred to Valenzuela from Capas, Tarlac.

Last week, senators grilled Guo about her involvement in POGOs and her escape in mid-July. But Guo requested an executive session as she supposedly feared for her life.

The Senate ordered her arrest after she and her siblings failed to attend Senate hearings.

Sen. JV Ejercito said he is inclined to support Guo’s request.

“I think she is just a pawn in a bigger web of an international syndicate. I hope she can... point out who is really behind the POGOs,” Ejercito said over the weekend.

Information obtained in an executive session cannot be divulged to the public, Ejercito noted.

Senators will discuss if they will publicize the name of the person written by Guo on a sheet of paper, Ejercito said, referring to a person who owns a yacht and helped Guo and her supposed siblings – Shiela and Wesley Guo – leave the country.

Unlike Ejercito, Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada opposed an executive session.

The public should know everything about Guo, he said.

At the last hearing, Estrada pressed Guo about her relationship with Calugay, noting that they have “many business partnerships not only in POGO.”

“I have gathered evidence that operations are still ongoing in Alisel,” he said. Alisel refers to businesses that have the alleged combined first names of Guo and Calugay.

Meanwhile, Valenzuela City Judge Elena Amigo-Amano has approved the Senate’s request for Guo’s appearance at the hearing.

In a two-page decision dated Sept. 16, Amigo-Amano instructed the Philippine National Police to bring Guo to the Senate.

‘Buffoonery’

President Marcos should stop hiding behind the “buffoonery” of Guo, Vice President Sara Duterte, former president Rodrigo Duterte and alleged rapist and religious leader Apollo Quiboloy, according to farmers’ group Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura.

Marcos might think that the “circus” surrounding Guo, Quiboloy and the Dutertes will distract Filipinos from his misdeeds, the group’s chairman Ariel Casilao said.

The group criticized the swift approval of the Office of the President’s 2025 budget, amounting to P10.5 billion.

The Vice President’s proposed P2.03-billion budget for 2025 has been slashed to P733 million by the House appropriations panel.

“Even if Guo, Quiboloy and the Dutertes appear like birthday clowns, it doesn’t erase the gravity of their actions... We must continue to watch and hold Marcos responsible too,” Casilao said. — Mark Ernest Villeza