Alice Guo will skip final Senate hearing on POGOs due to scheduling conflict

Dismissed Bamban will not be able to attend the final Senate hearing on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) on Tuesday morning as Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo is set to attend a hearing in Pasig City.

“Yes. For the Pasig (court) bail hearing,” Guo’s lawyer, Atty. Nicole Jamilla told GMA News Online in a message when asked if the imprisoned former mayor would attend the Senate hearing.

Jail Superintendent Jayrex Bustinera, spokesman for the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), said the court rejected the Senate committee’s decision to have Guo attend the panel hearing.

“Yes po. “The Court did not order him to attend the Committee hearing due to scheduling conflict with the Court Hearing of RTC 167 Pasig,” Bustinera said in a message to GMA News Online.

According to the court decision, the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality’s request to allow Guo and other defendants to appear for the Senate hearing “is unacceptable, given that there is a hearing scheduled for November 26, 2024” regarding the cases in which these defendants are charged. “At 08.30 in the morning.”

Guo faces an aggravated human trafficking case before a Pasig court and a corruption case before a Valenzuela City court for his alleged involvement in the illegal activities of a POGO center raided by authorities in Bamban.

The ousted mayor also faces a tax evasion complaint, 87 charges of money laundering and a complaint of perjury and falsification before the Department of Justice.

According to government officials, Guo, who is the same person as Chinese citizen Guo Hua Ping, denied the charges against him. —KBK, GMA Integrated News