Executive session with Guo pushed to extract information

SENATE deputy majority leader Joseph Victor Ejercito yesterday pushed for an executive session with ex-mayor Alice Guo, saying this will enable senators to extract more information on her alleged links to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators and her escape from the country that she cannot discuss in a public hearing.

In an interview with radio dzBB, Ejercito said Guo may just be the “pawn” of a criminal syndicate that runs illegal POGO hubs, adding it is through an executive session where she might freely identify the people behind these illegal operations.

Guo has requested the Senate Committee on Women for a closed-door meeting ostensibly so she could discuss details related to the activities of illegal POGOs and alleged threats to her life.

“Kung sakali sa isang executive session niya masabi, ibigay na natin para malaman natin, para maituro talaga ‘yung mga big bosses sa likuran nitong mga illegal POGO (Maybe we can give it to her so we can determine the bosses behind these illegal PGOs),” Ejercito said.

Ejercito said it is also important to determine who helped her enter politics, saying that China could have been “putting a bait in the country,” referring to fears Guo is a Chinese spy.

“Paano kung ang China, dahan-dahang nagpapasok na pala sila ng ganito sa political system natin. ‘Yan din ang gusto kong malaman, paano siya nakapasok, ang kanyang simulain sa kanyang politika sa Tarlac (What if China is slowly planting its people in our political system? I want to know how she entered politics, the beginnings of her political life in Tarlac),” he added.

Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada, deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, and Sen. Joel Villanueva have been vocal against granting Guo an executive session, saying she has not provided the committee “factual, valuable, and reliable” information that will convince them to agree to closed-door session.

But Ejercito believes otherwise.

“For me, we need to know who are behind illegal POGOs who are maybe members of an international crime syndicate, (the) Triad. If needed, we really have to hold an executive session with Guo,” he said, hoping to get more details from Guo in the next hearing on