PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said the arrest of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo in Indonesia should serve as a warning against those trying to flee the long arm of the law.
“Let this serve as a warning to those who attempt to evade justice: Such is an exercise in futility. The arm of the law is long and it will reach you. This government continues in its duty to apply the rule of law,” Marcos said.
He also assured Guo that she would be accorded all the legal protections under the laws of the land and the country’s commitment to the rule of law.
“But we will not prolong the resolution of the case, whose outcome will be a victory for the Filipino people,” he added.
The President also lauded and thanked all law enforcement personnel involved in the arrest of Guo and thanked the Indonesian government for its assistance.
“The close cooperation between our two governments has made this arrest possible,” Marcos added.
He also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to go after those who helped Guo escape, adding that aside from being fired from the government, they will also be charged in court.
“All of those who are implicated in the, in assisting Alice Guo to leave the Philippines illegally as a fugitive from justice will certainly pay the price. Not only will they, ang tanong niyo, sino ang sisibakin? Hindi lang namin sila sisibakin, kakasuhan pa namin sila dahil ang kanilang ginawa ay labag sa batas at against all of the interests of the Philippine judicial system (You ask whose heads will roll? Aside from being fired, we will also file charges against them),” he said.
The President previously said he was already aware of who helped Guo escape, including some personnel of the Bureau of Customs.
‘UNMASK THEM’
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros said Guo should unmask the people behind their escape and those who are behind the operations of illegal POGO hubs.
“I am fully expecting that she will tell all and tell the truth because her arrest is evidence that she cannot really hide. She managed to escape but she was eventually arrested. She has nowhere to go. We will make sure that those who helped her escape will be held liable,” Hontiveros said in a press conference.
Hontiveros warned Guo that she cannot always invoke her right against self-incrimination when she attends coming Senate hearings.
“While the right against self-incrimination has been established, it can only be used by a resource person if he or she does not want to answer the questions asked. But it is not a blanket for her not to attend the hearings and to face us when senators ask her questions,” she added.
She said the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms has already coordinated with the National Bureau of Investigation for the turnover of Guo to the Senate where she will be detained.
Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Roberto Angcan said Guo would be detained in a room long prepared for them with “sister” Shiela Guo inside the Senate compound in Pasay City.
Angcan said Guo will not be allowed to use cellphones but her lawyers and relatives can visit her.
Hontiveros said she hoped that Guo could make it to today’s second hearing of the Senate sub-committee on justice and human rights on the escape of the Guo siblings and other crimes related to the POGO industry.
She said the arrest of Alice, Shiela, and Cassandra Li Ong should send a strong signal to others with standing arrest warrants over crimes related to the POGO industry.
She said the Committee on Women can conduct two or three hearings more before it wraps up its investigation, adding the resource persons would also be asked questions about the Pharmally controversy.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said now that Guo has been arrested, she should answer all the charges against her.
“Guo should be made accountable for the charges filed against her like human trafficking, money laundering, quo warranto, and defiance to a lawful order from the Senate, among others. It is important that she answers these charges,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian added that Guo should tell all that she knows about illegal POGOs and how she and her cohorts were able to escape.
“She should reveal all her cohorts in criminal activities in Bamban and who in government helped them escape. We want names so we can file cases against them,” he added.
Senate President Francis Escudero thanked the Indonesian government for the arrest of Guo, adding: “She (Guo) can now be brought to justice and hopefully shed light on illegal POGO operations.”
‘BI INVOLVEMENT’
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla pointed to the possible involvement of some Immigration personnel in the “illegal exit” last July of Guo.
“May suspicion tayo (We have a suspicion) that some immigration people are involved,” Remulla told reporters after confirming that Guo was arrested by Indonesian authorities in Jakarta.
“They sneak people in, just like the pastillas gang, and they sneak people out. We know that there are people in Immigration who do that, that’s why we are looking into it,” he said.
The pastillas scheme involved unscrupulous Immigration personnel extorting money — ranging from P10,000 to P20,000 —from foreigners, mostly Chinese, in return for facilitating their seamless entry to the country.
The scheme allegedly allowed hundreds of thousands of Chinese to illegally enter the country to work in the offshore gaming industry.
Investigation on the pastillas scheme showed that syndicates in the BI even competed against each other to gain favor with travel agencies so they would be provided with the names of Chinese willing to shell out money for “VIP” treatment.
Remulla also expressed disbelief at the revelation of Sheila, who told the Senate last week that she, Alice, and their brother Wesley left the country aboard a small boat before transferring to a ship that brought them to Malaysia.
He said the DOJ and the NBI are checking the records of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines for chartered private flights on the day that the Guos fled the country.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco previously said they did not leave the country through the usual ports.
Remulla also chided Tansingco for allegedly failing to notify his office on developments in the hunt for Guo and other individuals allegedly involved in illegal POGO activities.
Tansingco earlier said he had received information that the dismissed mayor had fled the country but waited for additional confirmation before sharing the report.
“He did not inform me immediately. Maybe he knew about it for some time before I got the information. That is why we no longer talk. It was wrong of him not to inform the DOJ Secretary of developments in his agency,” Remulla said.
The BI is one of the agencies attached to the DOJ.
Remulla also said that state prosecutors may be able to resolve this Friday the qualified human trafficking case filed against Guo and several others before the DOJ by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission and the PNP-Criminal Investigation Group. — With Raymond Africa and Ashzel Hachero
