Legarda echoes call to expel Guo from NPC: ‘Bakit natanggap?’

Senator Loren Legarda on Thursday echoed the call for the National People's Coalition (NPC) to kick suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo from the party.

"I think she should be expelled. I'm not in the leadership, but I think she should be expelled," Legarda, an NPC stalwart, said in a press conference.

"Una, bakit natanggap? I have no idea. Second, they would say, wala naman finality pa eh, but you know, mag-aantay ka ba ng finality. I don’t think so... They have to look at the basis for expulsion, at the very least, suspension that took part while investigations are going on," she explained.

(First of all, why was she accepted? Why should we wait for finality)

The idea to expel Guo from the party was first floated by fellow NPC member Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

Earlier this month, NPC chairperson Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said the NPC Tarlac provincial council will meet to discuss the possibility of expelling Guo from the party. The party’s national council would then decide based on the recommendation of NPC Tarlac.

Legarda said she is 100 percent convinced that Guo is not the person who she says she is, warning there might be cases similar to that of the embattled Bamban mayor.

"But then, how many more Alice Guo's are there-- whether in political office or in the Philippines connected with criminal syndicates?" Legarda asked.

"We should prevent such occurrences in our country. Second, to be on the lookout for many similar personalities like her na naka-infiltrate," she went on.

Legarda described this as a "creeping invasion that infiltrated our local politics."

"Maaaring na-infiltrate ang ating mga propesyon. Maaaring ang negosyo, 'yung mga nagpapatakbo ng sindikato, paano ba nakarating?" she asked.

(It's possible our profession, businesses have been infiltrated. The ones running the syndicates, how were they able to get here?)

Guo is at the center of the Senate investigation into the raided Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) hub in Bamban, Tarlac after several documents showed that she was personally involved in the processing of documents for its operations.

Guo's citizenship was also questioned due to her inconsistent testimonies about her background and the supposed dubious documents regarding her Filipino citizenship.—RF, GMA Integrated News