The Philippine and Indonesian governments are discussing a potential exchange of custody for Alice Guo with an Australian drug suspect wanted by Jakarta following the dismissed Bamban mayor’s arrest.
In a now-deleted message to reporters, Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla answered affirmatively after being asked if complications in Guo’s deportation involved Jakarta police’s request to swap Guo with Haas.
“Yes, what I mentioned earlier,” Remulla said in the deleted message yet to be clarified.
Haas was arrested by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Cebu on May 15.
Meanwhile, Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Ty said the DOJ has yet to receive any formal communication from Indonesia on the potential swap request as reported by Indonesian media.
“We are hopeful that Mayor Guo will be brought home at the soonest possible time and this possibility of a prisoner swap won’t serve as an obstacle to that,” Ty said in an interview with “The Big Story” on One News channel on Wednesday night.
