MANILA – Suspended Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo questioned the eagerness of senators Sherwin Gatchalian and Risa Hontiveros in investigating her regarding her alleged involvement in illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) in her town.
In a statement, the controversial mayor said the two senators must turn their focus on issues such as food shortage and lack of healthcare instead of “threatening [her] with arrest.”
“If they have evidence against me, I am ready to face them in a fair trial and at a proper forum. Respectfully, I do not wish to be used by anyone to boost their political ambitions,” Guo said.
She added: “I appeal to them to focus their attention on these problems instead of continuously threatening me with arrest and accusing me of being complicit in various POGO-related crimes, which are untrue and unfounded.”
“Am I really the country’s biggest problem that they need to focus on? Or do they just want to project me as the antagonist/villain?” Guo further said.
Guo, who is currently suspended from her post, has been the subject of a Senate inquiry in connection with alleged illegal activities in the raided POGO in Bamban.
Recently, the Senate committee chaired by Hontiveros has ordered the issuance of an arrest order against Guo for failing to show up in the probe of the raided POGO hub in Bamban.
Guo, however, said that she was unable to attend the past hearings due to the “severe exhaustion and trauma” she had experienced in the earlier hearings and the cases filed against her.
The suspended mayor also belied the allegations of Gatchalian that she was behind the alleged death threats received by the senator for his investigation on the issue.
“The news linking me to various accusations is baseless, and they are just trying to implicate me. I have nothing to do with these issues, but I am being accused of all sorts of things because I am currently at the center of public attention,” said Guo.
“If anyone can disregard my right to privacy by prying into my personal records, they will know whether I have left the Philippines without simply asking the (Bureau of Immigration) or the (Department of Foreign Affairs), as I do not hold a Chinese passport,” she added./PN
