Photo from Senator Sherwin Gatchalian; Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate Social Media Unit
MANILA, Philippines — It appears that some government agencies were aware, but chose to conceal for a while that Alice Guo, otherwise known as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, has escaped the Philippines despite an existing arrest warrant and look out bulletin.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian disclosed this possibility in a virtual presser on Friday.
“Kasi kung titignan mo yung timeline, as early as July 18, wala na siya dito sa Pilipinas. Pero nalaman natin around August 18, around thereabouts. So isang buwan bago natin nalaman. Narinig ko sa mga ibang ahensya na maaga nilang alam,” Gatchalian told reporters.
He said it came to his knowledge, based on what he heard from some “spokespersons” of different government agencies that they already know early on about Guo’s escape, but they chose to “validate” it first.
This, however, did not sit well with Gatchalian who maintained that the public should have been informed because they are “allies.”
“In fact, yung mga pictures na iba, I understand, galing rin sa publiko. May mga nakakuha ng pictures. Guo Hua Ping. At ipinadala sa mga enforcement agencies natin. So, in other words, even us, hindi kami binigyan ng briefing. Kung in confidence yan, sana humingi ng executive session. At brinief muna tayo kung naka-alis na o ano,” he explained.
(But the public should also be informed because the public is your ally here. In fact, the other pictures, I understand, are also from the public. Some people got pictures. Guo Hua Ping. And sent to our enforcement agencies. So, in other words, even us, we were not given a briefing. If that’s in confidence, they could have requested an executive session. We could’ve been briefed if she’s already gone or what.)
At this point, the senator said he couldn’t avoid becoming suspicious that the information was purposely hidden from the Senate and the public.
“So, parang gusto itago yung naging problema na nakalusot yung tao, si Go Hua Ping. At parang gusto ipagtakpan yung nakalusot si Guo Hua Ping sa mga enforcement agencies natin. Kaya hindi maganda na itago pa ito for almost one month. Bago namin tuklasan,” he said.
(So, it’s like they want to hide the problem that Guo Hua Ping was able to escape. And they seem to want to cover up the fact that Go Hua Ping slipped through our enforcement agencies. So it’s not good to keep it for almost one month. Before we discovered it.)
Dismissed Bamban Mayor Guo left the Philippines in July, according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros.
In a manifestation delivered during the Senate plenary session, Hontiveros revealed information that Guo was already out of the country and was, in fact, already in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 18.
The opposition senator said Guo used her Philippine passport to exit the country.