BI chief says he learned of Alice Guo’s departure from PH on Aug. 15

Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco on Tuesday admitted at a Senate hearing that he received information of dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo's departure from the Philippines on August 15, or four days before Senator Risa Hontiveros revealed it in a privilege speech.

Unlike the Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), which only learned of Guo's departure from the senator's speech, Tansingco said they received information from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Intelligence Group.

"We received the information from PNP IG on August 15 in the afternoon," Tansingco said.

"Upon receipt of that information, we immediately conducted validation on the information," he added.

According to Tansingco, they only got the confirmations from their foreign counterparts on August 19 and all the information they received were validated on August 20 in the morning.

"On August 19 Monday, right after the regular flag ceremony that we had, I immediately convened the board of commissioners and called the chief of our intelligence division and the chief of our fugitive search unit and issued a memorandum for them to conduct an investigation and validation of all the information coming in," Tansingco said.

"While in the process of doing that, your honor made the manifestation in the Senate and when we received the detailed report from our intelligence division and fugitive search unit, we endorsed it to the Office of Executive Secretary and the Office of the Secretary of Justice in the morning of August 20," he added.

Asked why the BI did not immediately inform the DOJ about the tip that Guo might have escaped the country, prompting the Justice Department to issue a statement that the dismissed mayor is still in the Philippines, Tansingco said there were "conflicting reports" that they needed to validate first.

"There were conflicting information that we are receiving. Like for example, the flight from Manila to Malaysia on the Batik Air, the flight 0177 from Malaysia to Denpasar which we confirmed as a flight from Denpasar to Malaysia. And we received information that she already flew to Singapore and we also immediately conducted verification in our own records kung lumabas ba siya, gumamit siya ng airports or seaport dito sa atin [if she had left the country, if she had used our airports or seaports]," Tansingco explained.

"So when we had the correct information already, it was the time that we informed the Office of the executive secretary and the DOJ," he added.

Tansingco further told the Senate panel that August 15 was the last day of the conference that he attended in Vietnam and he flew back to the Philippines on the 16th.

The BI chief said he and the bureau's intelligence agents were already working with their contacts to confirm the information from August 17 to 18.

"We did not report immediately kasi ayaw po namin maglabas ng information na hindi po [because we did not want to issue information that was not] properly validated and confirmed," he said.

Tansingco said Hontiveros's privilege speech was delivered while they were conducting verification efforts.

"We never had an intention to withhold information and we did not [withhold] information," he added.

For his part, PNP Directorate for Operations Nicolas Salvador told the Senate panel that their Foreign Liaising Division received first information that the "subjects booked from Singapore to the Philippines" around August 14.

"We first worked with our foreign police attaché counterparts just simply to verify, validate this. The fact na 'di sila sumakay from Singapore to the Philippines, but instead we were able to monitor that they went to Indonesia. So that is where the intelligence coordination went through. Since the PNP has limited authority with respect to immigrations that's why we passed te information to the Bureau of Immigration," Salvador said.

Shiela Guo testified at the Senate hearing that from the Philippines, they went to Malaysia, then flew to Singapore, then went to Indonesia.

Shiela, together with her supposed siblings Alice and Wesley, said they left their farm in Tarlac around the first week of July and they rode several boats to reach Malaysia. — BM, GMA Integrated News