Zambales resort cries foul over ‘unlawful’ search for Guo

SECLUDED The secluded Silanguin Cove at Barangay Pundaquit in San Antonio, Zambales, shown in this July photo, is where dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo was reportedly last seen, with information that she escaped through a private resort, according to the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. —JOANNA ROSE AGLIBOT

SAN ANTONIO, ZAMBALES—The management of Emon Pulo Beach Resort at Silanguin Cove in this town has denied allegations that dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo used their resort as an escape route, fleeing with her group via two speedboats.

In a statement sent to the Inquirer on Thursday, Emon Pulo manager RJ Ronquillo said the resort was considering filing a slander case against Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) spokesperson Winston John Casio unless a public apology is issued immediately.

“On behalf of the management of Emon Pulo, we categorically deny the slanderous allegations of Casio,” Ronquillo said.

The controversy stemmed from a Senate subcommittee on justice hearing on Tuesday, during which Casio claimed that Guo, who was linked to the raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in her town, was last seen at Emon Pulo on July 14.

Casio explained that, despite facing challenges due to the resort’s remote location and security provided by four policemen, the PAOCC, alongside the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and military personnel, conducted an operation to apprehend Guo.However, Casio said they arrived too late, missing Guo by an hour and a half as she reportedly left by speedboat.

READ: Paocc eyeing private, public personalities behind Alice Guo’s departure

Casio later admitted that the information might have been incorrect, citing that Guo reportedly reached Indonesia on July 17 and Malaysia on July 18.“Surprisingly, after narrating the slanderous allegations, Casio then retracted his statement and affirmed that their asset was wrong,” Ronquillo added.

Mission order

Ronquillo said that on Aug. 2, PAOCC and BI personnel “unlawfully entered” Emon Pulo with a supposed mission order.

According to Ronquillo, they requested to see a search warrant and the mission order, but neither was presented to them.

“This is a culpable violation of our right against unreasonable searches. The good name and reputation of Emon Pulo were already dragged out, and its participation in the incident was already taken out of context,” Ronquillo said.

He added: “It’s like they conducted a raid … What they did seem to have a bit of force. Suddenly they came in. As in, they got off the boat, they ran all over the resort as if they were looking for someone. That’s what happened.”

In a text message on Thursday, Casio clarified that the BI, supported by military intelligence and PAOCC, served the mission order based on reports that Guo was hiding in a private resort in Silanguin Cove.

He said that while no search warrant was involved, the mission order was presented to the resort’s management.

Casio also apologized for any inconvenience caused to Emon Pulo and its guests but underscored the national importance of the matter, stating, “All we did was in the performance of a legitimate function.”

On Wednesday, Commander Euphraim Jayson Diciano, chief of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) station in Zambales, acknowledged that while the theory might be incorrect, he had still instructed all 12 substations in the province to review the list of vessels that transited Emon Pulo last month.

“We are now backtracking the data of all transiting vessels, especially on and around the dates mentioned in the Senate hearing, to trace the vessel that she possibly used,” Diciano said.

Diciano added that the PCG’s primary focus was on the substation in San Antonio, where Silanguin Cove is located, and the nearby substations in Subic town and Subic Bay Freeport.

During the Senate hearing, Guo’s sister, Shiela, confirmed that she, along with the dismissed mayor and their brother, Wesley, “escaped” the country via a small boat, but she was unaware of their exact location.

Shiela detailed a journey from their farm in Tarlac, involving a five-hour land trip and transfers between different boats before reaching Sabah, Malaysia, and later Singapore.

She and Cassandra Li Ong, a representative of Lucky South 99, another raided Pogo hub in Porac, Pampanga, were later arrested by immigration personnel in Indonesia.