A lot of people are wondering: where is dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo?!
It’s all over the news that she has left the Philippines even with an Immigration Lookout Bulletin Order (ILBO) on her.
But for Usec. Nicholas Felix Ty of the Philippine Department of Justice on Monday, Guo is apparently still in the Philippines.
“As far as we know, Mayor Guo is still in the country. There has been no report to us of an attempted departure from the Bureau of Immigration. She filed a motion for her case in the DOJ last Friday to which she attached a counter affidavit, which was sworn before a Philippine notary public on August 14, 2024. And there have been reported sightings from LEAs after July 18, 2024,” according to Usec. Nicholas Ty, Department of Justice.
However, on Tuesday, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) confirmed that the former mayor is no longer in the country.
According to the BI, Guo is currently in Indonesia.
From the beginning of the investigation on Guo, former Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Atty. Salvador Panelo already predicted that there will come a time Guo will refuse to show herself in public.
He says it’s possible that this is what the former mayor will do just like those who were not treated fairly by the government.
“I said, Alice Guo will be ‘Alice Gone’ — gone. Because she feels that even before the case, she already had a trial by publicity—she was humiliated by a female senator and a certain other senator.”
“Defenseless. She was really painted and made to look like she was already extremely guilty. So, I said, I wouldn’t be surprised if she refuses to surrender. It’s similar to what Bantag, Teves, and Pastor Quiboloy did. And that’s exactly what happened,” according to Atty. Salvador Panelo, Former Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.
The Philippine Bureau of Immigration believes Guo left the country illegally.
But Atty. Panelo stressed that her exit was legal.
“They are saying that she left illegally. How is it illegal when she has a passport? There’s a record with the immigration at the airport that she left, so that means she didn’t leave illegally. Perhaps she received help from those who sympathized with her, whether paid or not. The fact is she left legally because it’s recorded,” Atty. Panelo added.
Meanwhile, it appears that government officials including Risa Hontiveros are now losing their patience with Guo.
“Do not get peeved because you are the reason for the disappearance of Alice Guo. If you did not give her a trial by publicity—your method of questioning really humiliated her; you were digging into her life, destroyed [her]. She wasn’t going to leave because she has a lawyer — they were saying that they had evidence. But the problem is, you kept on vilifying her,” he added.
Aside from Hontiveros, this was Panelo’s message for other senators.
“Do not be like others who bully and are full of arrogance when actually, they have nothing — they are lacking here,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Immigration Bureau is now monitoring Guo’s movements to identify the individuals behind her departure from the Philippines.
The BI is also not ruling out the possibility that some agency officials may have assisted the mayor.
