Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo appeared Monday at the resumption of the Senate hearing on various accusations leveled against her, which left more lawmakers feeling more frustrated over her refusal to acknowledge the facts established by the state on her Chinese identity.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the joint panels, began by asking the ex-mayor to confirm her identity as ‘Guo Hua Ping,’ considering the documents and other pieces of evidence presented, but the embattled politician insisted she only has a Filipino identity and her name is Alice Guo.
Guo also kept using the alleged ‘death threat’ and invoking her right to self-incrimination as convenient excuses to evade some of the questions of the senators. This led Hontiveros to cite her in contempt for continuous lying and refusing to cooperate in their ongoing investigation.
“Alice Guo, ladies and gentlemen, is continuing to lie to this committee despite glaring evidence that she is a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping… This is a blatant defiance of the legislative’s constitutional power of inquiry,” Hontiveros said.
“It appears that you are playing with our laws and making Filipinos run in circles, but not the Senate… I move to cite Guo Hua Ping, also known as Alice Guo, in contempt of the Senate for testifying falsely and evasively before this committee,” she added.
Hontiveros argued that the alleged security threats have nothing to do with Guo answering even the most basic questions about her identity. The senator also cited some precedents, which made her invocation of right to self-incrimination inconsequential to the hearing.
Guo maintained her position and appealed to the lawmakers that she would be open to answering their questions through an executive session. “I will tell you, but just not in public,” she kept telling the senators, claiming she was fearing for her life, despite constant reassurances of her safety.
