BY Ashzel Hachero and Raymond Africa
SUSPENDED Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo yesterday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Senate probe on her alleged links to illegal POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) operations and from “further inviting or causing” her to appear as a resource person in the Senate inquiry.
In a 78-page petition for certiorari, Guo, through her lead counsel Stephen David, asked the High Court to annul the subpoena issued by the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality.
The committee, chaired by Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, had earlier cited Guo and seven others in contempt for failing to show up during the resumption of the hearing.
Senate President Francis Escudero said this “in effect set into motion” the issuance of arrest warrants against them.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said its investigation of the probable election offense committed by Guo when she ran and won in the May 2022 polls is expected to be completed in two weeks.
The National Bureau of Investigation had unmasked Guo as a Chinese masquerading as a Filipino, with her fingerprints matching that of Guo Hua Ping, the Chinese girl who entered the Philippines when she was just 13 in 2003.
“It is most respectfully prayed of this Honorable Court that the instant petition be given due course and an order be issued directing the respondent Committee from further inviting or causing the Petitioner to appear as resource person on matters and resolutions subject of the Instant Letters and Subpoena Ad Testificandum,” Guo said.
She asked that a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction be issued “enjoining Respondent and all other persons acting under their authority, their successors, agents or any and all persons acting for and on their behalf” from implementing the subpoena dated July 1 and from placing her as a resource person in the Senate inquiry.
In seeking the SC’s help, Guo said she was already adjudged guilty in the ongoing Senate probe, adding the committee “totally, whimsically, and arbitrarily discriminates” against her and the very institution it is sworn to protect.
“Petitioner Guo, a child, a daughter, a woman, a public servant, and one with family and name of her own, has already been adjudged guilty of all sorts of crimes,” the petition said.
“Her constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights have been repeatedly violated, ignored, and or disregarded,” it added.
David had earlier said her client was left traumatized by the Senate inquiry.
Guo has been suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman for six months while the investigation into her alleged involvement in the illegal POGO operation in Bamban is ongoing.
Aside from her supposed involvement in the POGO operation, Guo’s citizenship is also being questioned due to her inconsistent answers about her background and dubious documents regarding her Filipino citizenship.
Charges of human trafficking have also been filed against her before the Department of Justice while the Office of the Solicitor General asked a Tarlac court last week to cancel her birth certificate.
Guo has denied involvement in the POGO operation and insisted that she is a Filipino citizen.
RIGHT TO PRIVACY
In her plea, Guo also argued that Hontiveros committed grave abuse of discretion and violated her right to privacy by releasing documents to the public.
Among the documents that her camp said were “clandestinely and surreptitiously” shown by the committee to the media and the public were Guo’s birth certificate, Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, National Bureau of Investigation Clearance and General Information Sheet of registered companies.
“While it is submitted that the respondent Committee presented documents that are public records coming from different instrumentalities, it is respectfully submitted that these documents, though public in nature, contain data and information that are personal and private in character, which are definitely not for public consumption,” her petition said.
Guo also pointed to the criminal and administrative charges filed against her before the DOJ and the Ombudsman as well as the Solicitor General’s petition for the cancellation of her birth certificate as the reason for her not to longer appear before the Senate inquiry, saying anything that she said can be used against her in those proceedings.
“This only shows that whatever will be discussed, asked, and presented during the Senate committee hearing was already part of the different cases filed against the Petitioner and anything she will answer, divulge or present will definitely be used against her, in violation of her constitutional right against self-incrimination,” her petition further said.
She also noted that during the May 7 and May 22, 2024 hearings, several violations of her right to due process were committed.
Guo stressed that she was invited as a resource person to discuss “what she knows but in reality, she was never afforded any opportunity to sufficiently explain her side whenever a certain issue was raised.
She pointed out that she was invited to the Senate hearing to testify on her knowledge about human trafficking, cyber fraud operations, and other illegal activities associated with POGO operations.
“But what happened during the hearings was that her personal life became the center of the inquiry, which are totally unrelated, unconnected, and unassociated with the pending resolutions subject of the public hearing,” Guo’s petition said.
“As a result, she was asked and forced to divulge matters of her private life, childhood, love life, and personal businesses to the public under the pain of contempt,” it added.
As a result, Guo lamented she was already pre-judged by the public and branded as a “spy,” “POGO operator,” “corrupt,” and “human trafficker.”
ARREST WARRANTS
Hontiveros said she will immediately communicate with Escudero so the warrants of arrest can be signed and issued.
“I suppose any day now. Susulatan ko na si SP agad (I will immediately communicate with the Senate president),” Hontiveros said.
Once the warrants are out, she said the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms will proceed to the known addresses of Guo and the other resource persons to serve the warrants.
Upon the motion of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Hontiveros approved that Guo’s siblings — Siemen, Shiela, Wesley; father Jian Zhong Guo, and suspected mother Lin Wen Yi — also be cited in contempt.
Hontiveros said that Nancy J. Gamo, the accountant of the Guo family; and Dennis Cunanan, former director of the Technology Livelihood and Resource Center, will also be cited in contempt for snubbing the hearing despite being issued subpoenas.
Hontiveros said subpoenas will be issued against Jaimielyn Cruz, Roderick Paul Pujante, and Juan Miguel Alpas, all connected with Zun Yuan Technologies Inc. which operated the raided POGO hub in Bamban, Tarlac last March.
Subpoenas were also issued against Katherine Cassandra Ong, Alberto dela Serna, and Jonathan Mendoza, Ronelyn Baterna, Michael Bryce Mascarenas, Stephanie Mascarenas, Rodrigo Banda, Jing Gu, Xiang Tan, and Daniel Salcedo of Lucky South 99 Outsourcing Inc, which operated the POGO facility raided in Porac, Pampanga; and Chona Alejandre and Daniel Salcedo, incorporators of Whirlwind Corporation that owns the lot where the POGO facility was constructed in Porac, Pampanga.
Gatchalian said it is “disappointing” that the resource persons apparently snubbed the subpoenas issued to them.
“We have issued a subpoena to several personalities but it seems like they are not giving respect to the institution and the Senate. For me, ignoring the subpoena is like ignoring and disrespecting our institution and the process we are doing to find the truth,” he said in Filipino.
Escudero, in an interview last Tuesday, said he would sign the warrant of arrest against Guo and the other resource persons at the request of Hontiveros.
Before the scheduled hearing yesterday, Guo sent a letter to Hontiveros informing her that she would not be able to attend the hearing since the past hearings had taken a toll on her mental and physical health.
Hontiveros said the Guo family should be held accountable for abusing the late registration system.
“You took advantage of our brittle regulatory system. Our system may be brittle but it is not broken. Sisingilin ka, sinisingil ng sambayanan si Mayor Guo (You will have to pay, the people will make you pay),” Hontiveros said.
She said the continued absence of Guo and other resource persons in the hearing has left many questions unanswered.
“Ano ang dahilan bakit ipinuslit si Guo Hua Ping dito? At sino ang mastermind? ‘Yung kanyang tatay nga kaya na ayon sa pananaliksik ay di umano’y involved sa United Front activities ng Communist Party of China? (Why was Guo Hua Ping sneaked into the country?
Who was the mastermind? Was it her father who is involved in the United Front of the Chinese Communist Party?” she said.
She said the most pressing concern of the hearing is to determine Guo’s actual involvement in POGO operations and who are behind her.
ILBO ISSUED
Atty. Harold Arellano of the Bureau of Immigration’s prosecution and legal assistance section said a check with their records last Tuesday showed that Guo and her siblings have no records that they have left the country.
He said immigration agents have been placed on “alert” so they could inform interested agencies if the Guo siblings attempt to leave the country.
He said Mayor Guo has been issued an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO), which means that immigration officers can temporarily bar her from leaving while informing interested agencies, but they cannot prevent her from leaving the country since she has no warrant of arrest.
However, the Guos and the other resource persons can be barred from leaving the country once the Senate issues warrants for their arrest.
COMELEC MOVE
Comelec chief George Garcia said they expect the body’s newly formed fact-finding body to complete its mandate in two weeks.
“We gave the instruction to our Law Department to come up with a result in two weeks. We can really say the results will be out in two weeks,” said Garcia, adding he would follow up and press the body to swiftly come out with its findings.
“We are not in a race with other government agencies. But since there is an alleged offense, the Comelec must quickly take action and hold them accountable,” said Garcia.
The poll chief said the Commission has decided to pursue its probe instead of relying on the findings of other government agencies.
“We cannot just rely on the findings of the Senate or the Office of the Solicitor General. We need to make our own determination since what was supposedly violated is the Omnibus Election Code,” said Garcia.
Last Monday, the Comelec ordered its Law Department to create a fact-finding panel that will investigate the case of Guo.
The Committee is mandated to determine whether there was a material misrepresentation in Guo’s Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for the May 2022 polls, which would warrant the filing of an election offense case.
In her COC, Guo declared Tarlac, Tarlac as her place of birth, and that she has been living in the Philippines for 35 years and two months. — With Gerard Naval
