(UPDATES) SUSPENDED Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo has left the country, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Monday.
Using her Philippine passport, Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, past midnight on July 18, based on the travel records obtained by the senator.
Hontiveros said Guo flew to Singapore, where she reunited with her parents Lin Wen Yi and Guo JIanZhong. The couple flew in from China on July 28.
“Who allowed this travesty to happen?” Hontiveros asked. “I rise to speak against an assault on rights, privileges, reputation, conduct, decorum and dignity of the Senate as well as the integrity of its proceedings,” she said in her manifestation.
“If we don’t do it in a way, as an institution, as a country, it’s like we’ve slapped this foreigner who is repeatedly violating our laws, policies and processes again and again,” she said.
Hontiveros, chairman of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, on July 13 cited Guo in contempt and ordered her arrest for refusing to attend the inquiry on alleged human trafficking activities at the Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub in Bamban.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo was also alarmed over the implications of Guo’s disappearance. He said he believes Guo was able to board a chartered flight where proper departure procedure was not properly observed.
“I am very sure [that she left] through a chartered plane. We need to know which chartered planes left during that very day. And who were the customs, immigration, quarantine officials who processed her passport,” Tulfo said.
Sen. Grace Poe said the Senate should ask the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to provide senators with a record of all chartered flight departures from the Philippines.
“I’m sure we have a list of when they went to Malaysia and how many of these flights were bound for Malaysia,” Poe said.
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