THE Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court has allowed dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo to attend the resumption of the Senate inquiry on the operation of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Bamban today, Tuesday.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros wrote the RTC last week requesting that Gup be allowed to physically attend the probe. Hontiveros is leading the investigation into Guo’s alleged links to the POGO hub in Bamban that was raided by authorities last March.
“Acting on the Letter Request, accused Alice Guo a.k.a Guo Hua Ping is hereby allowed to attend the joint public hearing on September 17, 2024 at 9 o’clock in the morning,” the order signed by Valenzuela City RTC Presiding Judge Elena Amigo-Amano said.
The court directed the PNP Custodial Facility to bring Guo to the Senate and the PNP Headquarters Support Service to lead the security protocol.
The graft case filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government was transferred last week from the RTC in Capas, Tarlac, where it was originally filed, to the Valenzuela RTC.
Before the transfer of the case, the Tarlac RTC also assured Hontiveros that it would allow Guo to attend the Senate inquiry.
Hontiveros earlier said the dismissed mayor, who fled the country last July along with siblings Shiela and Wesley, should have been turned over to the Senate immediately after the National Bureau of Immigration or PNP processed her custody after she was brought back to Manila after her arrest and detention by Indonesian authorities.
Guo is also facing a human trafficking complaint in Pasig about the raided POGO hub as well as a money laundering complaint before the Department of Justice.
The Office of the Solicitor General has also filed a petition before the Tarlac RTC to cancel her birth certificate while a quo warranto petition to remove her from her post was also lodged before the Manila RTC.
