Escudero to Guo: Want your problems to end? Attend hearing
SENATE President Francis Escudero yesterday urged the legal team of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo to advise her to attend the Senate hearings if they want their problems with the Committee on Women to end.
Escudero issued the statement after Guo sent him a letter apologizing for her comment on her Facebook account last week that Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the committee; Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, and other senators “seem fixated on me” and are apparently using the Senate inquiry to “boost their political ambitions.”
In the letter dated July 20 and received by Escudero’s office last Monday, Guo apologized to the Senate leader for the statement.
“Wala po akong intensiyon na pagsabihan o diktahan ang Senado kung ano ang mga dapat bigyang prayoridad. Nauunawaan ko po na ang bawat mambabatas ay may sariling tungkulin at responsibilidad sa bayan (I have no intention to dictate on what the Senate should prioritize. I understand that each lawmaker has a responsibility to the country),” Guo said.
She claimed she has been treated as a “convicted criminal” rather than a resource person each time she attended the committee hearing, taking away her right to be presumed innocent until otherwise proven by a court of law.
“Sa aking karanasan, pagkatapos ng bawat pagdinig sa Senado, nagiging sentro ako ng negatibong posts sa social media na para bang ako ay isa nang convicted criminal at hindi isang resource person sa tema ng mga pahayag at patutsada ng mga senador na dumidinig sa issue ko at ng POGO (After each hearing, I become the center of negative posts on social media which make it look like I am a convicted criminal instead of a resource person, all because of the statements and insinuations of the senators hearing the issues against me and the POGOs),” she said.
Guo asked Escudero to allow her to defend herself in the “proper forum,” in effect asking for her contempt citation to be lifted so she could continue to serve the people of Bamban.
“Batid ko pong bilang isang abogado, nauunawaan ninyo ang kahalagahan ng ‘presumption of innocence’ at ang pangangailangang irespeto ang karapatan ng bawat indibidwal habang ummusad ang
