Senate panel subpoenas Alice Guo's business partner

The Senate women, children, family relations and gender equality committee on Tuesday ordered the issuance of a subpoena against JP Samson, a companion of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, in a resort in Zambales in 2023.

Panel chairperson Senator Risa Hontiveros ruled this after Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada made the motion, duly seconded by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.

According to Committee Secretary Gemma Tanpiengco, an invitation was sent to the residence of Samson in Quezon City but he refused to accept the letter “for security reasons.”

“Madam Chair, we sent [an] invitation to Mr. JP Samson but there was a strict directive from Mr. Samson not to allow any letter or any…sent to the security actually. There was a strict direction from him not to accept any letter,” Tanpiengco said.

The Committee Secretary said that they got the information that there was such an order from Samson from a text conversation between Samson himself and the head of security of Philam Village.

Hontiveros said that the subpoena will be issued by the Committee with a strict warning that non-compliance may result in contempt.

“Siguro hindi na strict directive ang isasagot niya sa subpoena ng Senado,” she said.

(Maybe he will no longer respond with a strict directive with the Senate’s subpoena.)

In a Senate hearing on September 5, Beach Resort Emon Pulo owner Raymond Ronquillo said that Guo and at least 20 companions visited the resort in March 2023, speculating that they might have been there to “unwind.”

Ronquillo said that Guo’s group has yet to pay for their stay, adding that he was coordinating with Samson to settle the bill.

“Nag resort lang po sila, nag swimming, and then nag land din po yung helicopter nila doon. Siguro po mga dalawa o tatlong balik po ‘yung helicopter with the bisita nila,” the resort owner said.

(They just stayed at the resort, went swimming, and then their helicopter also landed there. Maybe the helicopter made two or three return trips to bring their visitors.) — RSJ, GMA Integrated News