FILE PHOTO: Bamban, Tarlac City Mayor Alice Guo speaks during the resumption of the Senate probe into a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in Tarlac province on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. The now-dismissed mayor Guo on Friday, August 16, 2024, asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the qualified human trafficking complaint against her. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — The camp of former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the qualified human trafficking complaint against her.
According to Guo, the complainants failed to establish her connection to human trafficking in Bamban since the only evidence of her supposed involvement were “mere electric bills and documents” of Baofu Land Development, Inc.
Guo is said to be the president of Baofu, which compound located just behind the Bamban Municipal Hall was host to the raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) last March.
“The allegations against me are being exploited by individuals who are more interested in leveraging this issue for their own political ambitions and enhancing their public image rather than seeking the truth,” the ousted mayor asserted in a motion with an attached counter-affidavit she filed with the DOJ on Friday.
READ: Alice Guo’s lawyer: Human trafficking case vs mayor ‘weak’
Guo, through her counsel, submitted to the DOJ a motion to reopen the preliminary investigation of her human trafficking case and admit her attached counter-affidavit. She filed it “in support of my prayer for the dismissal of the complaint.”
“Clearly, it is unjust to accuse me of committing human trafficking simply because I am a mayor. My position should not be used as a basis for unfounded allegations, especially when there is no credible evidence to support such claims,” she also said.
The Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) filed a non-bailable offense of qualified human trafficking against Guo and others before the DOJ on June 21.
In an ambush interview also on Friday, Justice Undersecretary and Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking Chairperson Nicholas Ty said Guo’s counter-affidavit should have been submitted personally by her.
“Ang rule natin dapat ang mga tao na gusto maghain ng affidavit sa PI ay personal na pumunta at magsumpa sa harapan ng fiscal, ngunit tayo naman, ako, ibibigay ko nalang sa prosecutor panel ‘yan kung tatanggapin nila o hindi ang counter affidavit ni Guo,” Ty told reporters.
(Our rule is that people who want to file an affidavit with the PI must personally go and swear in front of the fiscal, but as for us, I will just give that to the prosecutor panel whether or not they will accept Gu’s counter affidavit.)
READ: Ombudsman ousts Guo as mayor for Pogo role
“Tuloy lang naman ‘yung PI [preliminary investigation] ni Mayor Alice Guo, ang sinabi sa akin ng mga fiscal natin ay si Mayor Guo nag-file siya ng kanyang motion to admit na may naka-attach na counter affidavit dito,” said Ty.
(The preliminary investigation (PI) of Mayor Alice Guo continues. The prosecutors told me that Mayor Guo filed her motion to admit, which has an attached counter-affidavit.)
“Bukod doon,‘yung mga ibang respondents na hindi pa nakaka-file ng counter-affidavit tulad ni Mr. Dennis Cunanan ay nag-file na rin ng kanyang counter-affidavit. Tapos ‘yung ating mga complainant naman, ang CIDG at ang PAOCC, ay naghingi ng time to apply affidavit,” he added.
(Apart from that, the other respondents who have not yet filed their counter-affidavits, like Mr. Dennis Cunanan, have now filed their counter-affidavits. Then, our complainants, the CIDG and the PAOCC, have requested time to apply their affidavits.)