‘Evasive’ Guo cited for contempt anew

Senators on Monday took turns questioning dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, who faced them for the first time after her arrest in Indonesia last week.

Far from the cheerful Guo who greeted the media with a beaming smile in Indonesia last week, she appeared at the resumption of the Senate investigation into the raided POGOs in her town and her alleged ties with them with a visibly reluctant face.

Heavily escorted by female personnel of the Philippine National Police, she entered the Senate premises in Pasay City with a bulletproof vest and Kevlar helmet, which military usually wear to protect their heads against a wide range of threats, including submachine-gun bullets and fragments.

Contempt for second time

Less than an hour after the Senate panel resumed its hearing, its chair Senator Risa Hontiveros cited Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, for contempt for “testifying falsely and evasively.

“I move to cite Guo Hua Ping, also known as Alice Guo, in contempt of the Senate for testifying falsely and evasively before this committee,” said Hontiveros, the panel’s chair.

Senator Joel Villanueva seconded her motion to cite Guo for contempt for the second time. She was first ordered to be cited for contempt for repeatedly ignoring the subpoenas issued by the same panel in July.

The motion stemmed from her refusal to answer Hontiveros’ question about whether she is the same person as Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national.

Guo initially stressed that she would answer the questions related to her identity in court but later insisted that she is a Filipino citizen despite the evidence pointing out that she is a Chinese national.

“As far as I know, I am Alice Guo. And I apologize if you don't believe it,” the former local chief executive told lawmakers.

To recall, the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the fingerprints of Guo matched those of Guo Hua Ping.

After making the motion for her contempt, Hontiveros said that the custody of Guo would remain under the PNP due to the arrest order by the Tarlac Regional Trial Court on her graft and corruption charges.

“While Ms. Alice is in contempt of the Senate, she will remain in PNP custody. If she posts bail, she will be brought to the Senate, and that’s the part we will coordinate with the court regarding her detention,” she clarified.

Death threats

Senators also failed to get a concrete answer from Guo who also refused to publicly disclose details on the alleged death threats she received which prompted her to leave the country in July.

“I have death threats. I will them (sic) but not in public,” she told lawmakers, who were pressed to question her about the identity of those who are threatening her life.

As the hearing progressed, Guo eventually shed light on the death threats she started receiving in June, a month before she departed for Indonesia with her siblings, Sheila and Wesley.

According to her, she received the death threats through a phone call “more than five times.”

Senators prodded Guo to provide more details about the supposed death threats, but she refused to give in. She requested to go to an executive session where the Senate public hearing would be discontinued temporarily but was later turned down by senators.

Escape

During the same hearing, Guo confirmed earlier remarks made by her sister Sheila that they left the country via boat.

However, there were discrepancies in their claims as Guo said they traveled to a yacht in a port in Metro Manila, which she said does not remember.

Sheila earlier claimed that their family boarded a small white boat, which she said could only accommodate at least five to 10 people, then transferred to a larger boat. She noted that they boarded another boat, which they used to reach Malaysia.

In Guo’s narrative, she admitted that they left the country boarding a yacht in July after receiving death threats in June. She, however, said that she did not know the owner of the yacht.

When asked by Senator Jinggoy Estrada to name the owner of the yacht and those who facilitated their families’ escape, the former Bamban mayor refused to provide details, saying she was concerned about her safety.

“Is it okay not to discuss it in public?” she told senators which Hontiveros and Estrada opposed.

Estrada then asked her to write down the names of the people who helped her acquire the yacht on their trip, instead. She initially agreed to it on the condition that senators would not divulge their identities in public.

Hontiveros called out Guo for making such a request, stressing that allowing her to write the names of those who helped her on paper was already a favor.

“Do not tell the senators what to do with the information. We are doing you a favor in allowing you to write on paper,” she told Guo.

Guo maintained that the alleged death threats she received prevented her from speaking about the matter publicly, which only intensified the senators' frustration