Lawmakers from both houses of Congress warned the detained Alice Guo to come clean on all she knows about the shady world of Philippine Overseas Gaming Operators (POGOs) or face the possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian urged the disgraced former mayor to “tell everything” during the Senate POGO hearing on Monday otherwise, it will be the “end of the road” for her.
“She must also reveal if there are government officials, whether elected or from [law] enforcement agencies involved in illegal POGOs and those who helped them in their escape,” he said.
In an executive session, the senator said he has evidence of connivance between illegal POGOs government officials and law enforcers, but he refuses to give further details at the moment.
“So we will ask Alice Guo about this tomorrow,” Gatchalian said on Sunday.
The senator also brushed aside Guo’s claim that she absconded from the Philippines due to threats on her life.
Gatchalian’s view is shared by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), which said there is no indication that Guo is threatened.
However, PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said his agency would look into the supposed death threat anyway.
The former Bamban mayor is set to face the resumption of the hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality chaired by Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
Guo will be brought to the Senate from her detention facility at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
She is expected to be handcuffed while wearing a bulletproof vest and surrounded by police escorts when she is brought before Senators.
The erstwhile fugitive is scheduled to leave Camp Crame at 8 a.m. to be on time for the Senate hearing at 10 a.m., PNP Spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo said.
It would be the third time for Guo to attend the Senate hearing into illegal POGO activities, in which she is allegedly a key player.
She secretly fled the Philippines to dodge the inquiry but was later arrested in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, Guo’s purported sister “Shiela,” who authorities later found out is really Chinese national Zhang Mier, is already in the Senate’s custody.
The dismissed Bamban mayor, also known as Guo Hua Ping, has now corroborated Shiela’s earlier testimony that they are not truly related by blood.
At the Lower House, Pampanga Rep. Aurelio Gonzales Jr. took a softer approach, urging Guo and her alleged cohort Cassandra Li Ong to expose the truth about POGOs’ activities “for the sake of the country.”
“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,” he said.
While Guo is being held at Camp Crame, Ong is detained at the House of Representatives compound.
Her blood pressure supposedly became unstable in the middle of her testimony last week, prompting the House staff to bring her to the hospital.
Gonzales said Ong “must be under a lot of pressure from those behind illegal POGOs.”
