August 28, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos has a “very good” idea on who helped dismissed Bamban, mayor Alice Guo leave the Philippines, and vowed to hold them accountable.
The President said the Department of Justice is “almost” finished with its “very thorough” investigation of Guo’s departure last month.
“Very, very good idea. I have a very good idea,” Marcos said when asked whose heads would roll during a chance interview at Malacañang.
However, he refused to disclose how many people were involved in Guo’s escape.
“Is there only one person involved or are there many, or is it a syndicate? That’s what we are doing. There are no sacred cows,” he said.
“We will identify all of those who have, all of those who are involved in this, and we will act very quickly,” he added.
The President also confirmed that there will be some personnel from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) who will be sacked.
Guo is facing complaints over her alleged involvement in illegal offshore gaming operations in the country.
She reportedly left the Philippines on July 18 using her Philippine passport. She flew to Malaysia and Singapore before taking refuge in Indonesia.
BI: Guo in Jakarta
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said yesterday that Guo has been in Jakarta, Indonesia since Aug. 20.
In a dzRH interview, Tansingco said the latest information he received was “there is confirmation that she is in Jakarta, Indonesia. She has not left and the Indonesian Immigration is closely monitoring her if she will pass through the regular ports of entry.”
He added that Guo “flew last Aug. 20 from Batam, Indonesia” and they are already in coordination with their Indonesian counterparts to intercept her if she attempts to leave Jakarta so she can be turned over to the Philippine government.
Tansingco claimed that Chinese national Wu Duaren is one of those assisting her and her companions in their transfer from one country to another.
Wu is reportedly also a person of interest since he has been included in the immigration lookout bulletin order in connection with the investigation of Philippine offshore gaming operators in Bamban, Tarlac and Porac, Pampanga.
The Immigration chief explained that Guo and her companions most probably left the country through illegal means as their names did not appear on regular exit points on their July records.
However, the BI has not yet identified how and which route Guo took in leaving the country.
“Unfortunately, we have more than 7,000 islands and they say there is a ‘backdoor.’ Someone could just rent a pump boat, go island-hopping and leave the country via Sabah, (Malaysia)” Tansingco said.
He also said they are still trying to reconcile the route taken, based on the information deduced from Shiela’s passport.
If they had taken the backdoor, the nearest would have been Sabah but “what we cannot reconcile is that on July 18 she already arrived in (Kuala Lumpur) Malaysia, and on July 19 she has a stamp of Sabah in her passport and on July 21 she left for Singapore.”
Tansingco has not yet confirmed if any personnel in his bureau is involved in the dismissed mayor’s escape as he “trusts that our officers would not do something that they should not do.”
The National Bureau of Investigation is also monitoring the whereabouts of Guo.
NBI director Jaime Santiago said they are closely monitoring her but the agency cannot yet disclose specific details.
When asked about the expected timeline for Guo’s return, the NBI chief said “as soon as our authorities locate her.”
No deadline extension
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said there will be no deadline extension for Guo to file her counter-affidavit on the misrepresentation charges against her.
Garcia noted that the poll body already granted motu proprio Guo’s request to extend the filing of her counter-affidavit until Sept. 1.
There will be no further extension of the deadline as Garcia said the one-time “automatic extension” of filing of a counter-affidavit for criminal cases is already enough.
The poll body chief added their office is now awaiting whether Guo will personally appear before Comelec or if her legal counsels would submit a notarized sworn counter-affidavit, which she needs to sign.
For fairness and in accordance with due process, Garcia said the Commission would only accept signed documents.
Guo’s lawyers previously requested for an additional 10 days to submit her counter-affidavit.
The Comelec legal department will submit the case for resolution whether Guo submits her answer to the complaint or not. — Evelyn Macairan, Mayen Jaymalin, Mark Ernest Villeza
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