Alice Guo back at Senate today

DISMISSED Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo will be brought to the Senate on Monday to attend the inquiry on her alleged links to Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).

Guo and her siblings Shiela and Wesley fled on July 17 to Malaysia at the height of the Senate probe.

The Guos traveled to Singapore and then to Indonesia, where Alice was arrested on September 3 and flown back to the Philippines on September 5.

IN MANILA Unseated Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, accompanied by Philippine officials, is brought back to Manila from Indonesia where she was arrested on Sept. 4, 2024. Guo, who fled the country in a vessel in July, along with two of her siblings and a business partner, arrived on board a chartered flight on September 6 together with Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. and Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Rommel Marbil. Abalos served the arrest warrant issued by the Senate. She will be placed in a detention facility, along with sister Shiela, provided by the Senate. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN

Shiela and their business partner Cassandra Ong were arrested a week earlier also in Indonesia and were deported back to the country.

Since her return, Alice has been detained in the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame on orders of a Capas, Tarlac, regional trial court that issued a warrant for her arrest.

Guo is facing several cases, including human trafficking and money laundering.

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Sen. Risa Hontiveros, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, had requested the presiding judge, Sarah Vedaña-delos Santos, to allow Alice to attend the continuation of the inquiry.

Vedaña-delos Santos granted Hontiveros' request.

Hontiveros had questioned the decision of the Department of the Interior and Local Government to file the graft charges against Guo before the Tarlac court, saying the Sandiganbayan «should be the one to handle graft and corruption charges against high-ranking officials like Mayor Guo.»

Over the weekend, Department of Justice (DoJ) Assistant Secretary and spokesman Mico Clavano said the personalities who helped Alice Guo slip out of the country