SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday urged suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo to surrender, adding she should respect the Senate and the country’s laws.
“Dapat mag-voluntary surrender na lang siya. I’m sure alam na niya na may arrest order na siya. Respetuhin niya ang batas (She should voluntarily surrender. I’m sure she knows that she has an arrest order. She must respect the law),” Gatchalian said in a Viber message to reporters.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said Guo should attend the Senate hearing on the ills of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) industry so the contempt citation on her can be lifted.
“Para mawala ‘yung contempt niya, otherwise sa ayaw at sa gusto niya dadalhin siya sa Senado (So that the contempt citation on her can be lifted, otherwise whether she likes or not, she will be brough to the Senate),” Pimentel said in an interview with radio dzBB.
Pimentel issued the remark after warrants of arrest were issued by the Senate against Guo, her siblings Shiela, Wesley, and Siemen; her father Jian Zhong Guo; suspected mother Lin Wen Yi; Nancy Gamo, the family’s accountant; and Dennis Cunanan, a former Technology and Livelihood Resource Center director who was convicted for graft for malversation of public funds,
The warrants of arrest on Gou and the rest were issued last July 11 and signed by Senate President Francis Escudero and Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros but were shared with the media only last Saturday.
The Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) dispatched its personnel to the known addresses of Guo and the rest but only Gamo was arrested.
“Mayor Guo was not found at (her) given addresses in Bamban, QJJ Farm. Building and structures were searched by OSAA team and PNP contingent with SWAT complement,” said OSAA head Roberto Angcan in a text message to Escudero, which the latter shared with the media.
Angcan said another OSAA team went to the garments factory of the Guo family in Maligaya St., Barangay Patubig in Marilao, Bulacan but failed to locate Wesley Leal Guo.
Another team also went to Valenzuela City but failed to arrest Shiela and Siemen.
Angcan said the OSAA teams were not allowed entry in the garments factory that security guards said belongs to the Guos.
He said Cunanan was also not found in his known addresses, but his legal team earlier said that he is willing to attend the next scheduled committee hearing on July 29.
Pimentel, in the radio interview, said Guo has a good team of lawyers who can advise her what to do in case she decides to attend the Senate hearing.
“She should seek advice from her lawyers of her rights, that if anything she says will be used against her in criminal proceedings, she can invoke her right against self-incrimination. Her lawyers know that,” he said.
She said Guo’s absence from the hearings only adds to her problems since she now has to deal with “procedural laws” rather than just “substantive law.”
Last week, Guo’s camp asked the Supreme Court to junk the subpoena issued against her, saying the Senate has no jurisdiction over her.
Pimentel, a lawyer, said only a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) from the SC could stop the committee from inviting Guo as a resource person, adding he does not see any wrong with the committee issuing a subpoena or an arrest warrant on Guo.
“But if there is no TRO, it [the hearing] will continue. If she is asked by the Senate to answer, she should answer. If there is no TRO, she must attend. She cannot say that she will TRO herself,” he said.
