Will Guo attend this one?

THE preliminary hearing of the human trafficking case filed against suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo before the Department of Justice is set to resume today, Tuesday 6.

Guo and the other respondents, including former Technology Livelihood Resource Center chief Dennis Cunanan, are expected to submit their counter-affidavits on the case filed by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the PNP-CIDG over the operation of the raided Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Bamban.

Guo and the other respondents were a no-show during the July 22 hearing of the case.

The DOJ gave them more time – until today – to file their counter affidavits because the PAOCC and the PNP-CIDG have added another respondent in the case and four more new complainants.

Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty, the undersecretary-in-charge of the Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking (IACAT), said the August 6 deadline for Guo to answer the complaint is “non-extendible.”

“Hopefully, by August 6 after mabigyan ng pagkakataon ang mga respondents na mag-file ng kanilang mga counter-affidavit, submitted for resolution na ang kaso (after the respondents were given the time to file their respective counter-affidavits, the case will be submitted for resolution),” Ty said then.

Ty said the PAOCC and the PNP-CIDG have told him they would not file a reply affidavit to the respondent’s counter affidavits.

The DOJ and the PAOCC have called on Guo to surface and face the charges.

Aside from her supposed involvement in the POGO operation, Guo’s citizenship is also being questioned. She has denied involvement in the POGO operation and insisted she is a Filipino.

She has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop the Senate from compelling her to attend its hearings and from digging deeper into her personal life.