PNP: Alice Guo to wear bulletproof vest, handcuffs for Monday's Senate hearing

Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo will be handcuffed while wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by police escorts when she is transferred to the Senate to attend a legislative investigation on illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Sunday.

PNP Spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo said that the convoy carrying Guo will leave the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City by 8 a.m. on Monday in time for the Senate hearing scheduled at 10 a.m.

“Ang initial po ay lalagyan siya ng bullet vest, isasakay siya sa sasakyan with security package. Ang nasa paligid naman niya ay mga babaeng pulis natin. Meron din tayong mga SWAT na magbabantay po at kasama po ‘yan sa convoy at dadalhin siya immediately doon sa Senate para um-attend sa hearing,” Fajardo said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview. 

(Based on initial plans, she will wear a bulletproof vest and she will ride a vehicle with a security package. Those who will be around her are our female police officers. We will also have a SWAT team to guard her and will be with her in the convoy. She will be taken immediately to the Senate to attend the hearing.)

“Naka-posas po ‘yan papunta ng Senado at pagdating po doon then we will take our cue from the Senate kung ipapatanggal po nila ‘yan. Normally naman po, kapag ang isang indibidwal lalo na’t under detention, ay inaalisan naman ng posas habang ongoing ‘yung Senate although meron tayo security sa likod,” she added.

(She will be handcuffed en route to the Senate. Once we arrive there, we will take our cue from the Senate if the restraints should be removed. Normally, individuals, especially those under detention, are allowed to remove their handcuffs while the Senate hearing is ongoing. But we will still have security behind her.) 

Fajardo said the law enforcers will strictly observe security protocols in transporting Guo to the Senate office in Pasay City.

This, as the Tarlac court which ordered the arrest of Guo on graft charges ordered the PNP Custodial Center to bring Guo to the Senate on Monday after the court granted the Senate's request for her to appear in the hearing.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality, earlier wrote to Capas, Tarlac Regional Trial Court Branch 109 Presiding Judge Sarah Vedaña-Delos Santos, asking to allow Guo to attend the continuation of the panel's investigation on September 9.

The request was made after the court issued a commitment order for Guo, who did not post bail, to be detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

Guo was placed in the same detention room where former senator Leila de Lima was held.

The room was described as "ordinary" quarters with no air condition unit. The white-walled room has a single bed with a metal frame, a small round table, monoblock chairs, and a plastic bucket with a pail in the toilet.

According to Fajardo, the PNP will ensure that the hostage taking incident that happened to de Lima in October 2022 while in Custodial Center will not happen to the former mayor.

“Sisiguraduhin natin na hindi na mauulit ang nangyari sa insidente kay dating Senador de Lima. Pagkatapos ng insidenteng ‘yun ay nag-beef up tayo ng security diyan,” she said.

(We will make sure that the incident that happened to former Senator de Lima will not happen again. After that incident, we beefed up the security there.)

“Malayo po itong detention cell ni Alice Guo doon sa mga detention cell naman po ng iba pang high profile male individuals na nandyan kasalukuyan sa custodial facility,” she added.

(The detention cell of Alice Guo is far away from the detention cells of other high profile male individuals who are currently detained in the custodial facility.)

In 2022, de Lima was taken hostage by a person under police custody (PUPC) who was said to be a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group. This came after a police officer who was then delivering food for PUPCs at the maximum security compound was stabbed with an improvised knife by three men who were trying to escape.

The three suspects were neutralized and de Lima was checked at a hospital following the incident.  

‘Tell the truth’

Meanwhile, Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. appealed to Guo and her companion, Cassandra Li Ong, to reveal the truth and everything they know about the illegal POGOs.

“Alice Guo and Cassandra Ong are claiming they are Filipinos. If this is true, they owe it to our country to speak up and reveal all they know about these underground POGOs that flourished during the past administration,” the solon said.

“Tayong mga Filipino, mahal natin ang ating bansa. Kung mga Filipino sila, dapat mahal din nila ang ating bayan,” he added. 

(We Filipinos love our country. If they are Filipinos, they should love our country as well.)

Gonzales lamented that the reputation of Pampanga has been tainted by the Porac POGO, the September 2023 seizure of P3.6-billion worth of shabu in a warehouse in Mexico town, and the discovery of P1.3 billion worth of illegal drugs in an abandoned car in Mabalacat City in August last year. 

“Kawawa ang probinsya namin [our province is pitiful], a progressive growth area in Central Luzon. We should be able to recover from this mess but we should know what really happened with the cooperation of vital witnesses like Miss Ong,” he said.

Ong, who is the authorized representative of the raided POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga, is currently in the custody of the House of Representatives.

She and Alice Guo's supposed sister Shiela were intercepted by Indonesian authorities and were brought back to the Philippines on August 22. Sheila is currently detained at the Senate.

Guo, on the other hand, was nabbed by Indonesian authorities in Tangerang City early Wednesday morning. The former mayor is facing human trafficking and money laundering complaints.

Denied involvement

In her defense, the dismissed mayor has rejected accusations she abetted the alleged illegal activities of Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, which included human trafficking and illegal detention, within the walls of its sprawling compound in the town of Bamban.

“I deny in the strongest terms all of these allegations of criminal conduct — or at least, allegations that I have somehow aided and abetted the supposedly Zun Yuan Technology Inc.,” Guo said.

“Human trafficking, torture, and illegal detention are heinous crimes that I never, ever tolerate, much less be involved in,” said Guo.

Guo added she welcomed any investigation by the proper authorities at the proper forum.

 An official of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Saturday that Guo sent surrender feelers while she was in Indonesia,

 Guo confirmed this when BI Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) chief Rendel Ryan Sy talked to her in Indonesia after authorities turned her over to them.—RF, GMA Integrated News