SEN. Risa Hontiveros warned that she might seek the arrest of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo if she continues to snub the Senate inquiry on her alleged link to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs).
Guo’s lawyers informed the senator that Guo was not keen on attending the next inquiry on the controversy scheduled on July 10 because the mayor was “traumatized” by the previous public hearings that she had attended.
Hontiveros, chairman of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, is set to resume the probe on the reported involvement of POGOs in Bamban town in human trafficking and other illegal activities.
“If she doesn’t honor the subpoena, the Senate is well within its rights to issue an arrest order. She must attend the hearing on Wednesday to avoid any drama,” said Hontiveros in Filipino and English.
The senator invited Guo’s siblings to attend the hearing, but they did not show up.
In a statement addressed to the mayor, Hontiveros said, “Mayor Alice Guo, the truth will give you peace of mind.”
“She was not the only one traumatized. The human trafficking victims — the foreigners and Filipinos who were forced to work in POGO scam compounds — were traumatized,” Hontiveros said.
“The Filipino nation was also traumatized upon learning that there is a Chinese national who became mayor in the Philippines,” the senator said.
The David and Jamilla Law Offices refused to accept the subpoena for Guo’s parents and siblings because it “only represents Mayor Alice Leal Guo and her alone.”
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