Shiela Leal Guo made her first appearance at the Senate hearing Tuesday, August 27, 2024. The hearing was jointly conducted by the Justice and Human Rights Subcommittee and the Committees on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality and Public Services presided by Sen. Risa Hontiveros after a privilege speech was delivered urging the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel Alice Guo’s passport. FILE PHOTO/Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros revealed at a Senate hearing on Thursday that the Sabah stamp on Shiela Guo’s passport was fake.
Shiela was previously identified as the sister of dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, who is the subject of a Senate probe over her supposed ties to Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos).
According to Hontiveros, they learned from friends in Sabah, Malaysia that Shiela had no “legal entry” in Sabah.
READ: Shiela Guo confirms escaping PH with siblings Alice, Wesley via boat
“Pati yung stamp sa passport na nag-indicate na dumating kayo sa Sabah, fake daw yung stamp na yan. Kinumpara nila sa totoong stamp na dapat pinatatak sa Sabah,” the senator said at the resumption of the the Senate subcommittee on justice and human rights hearing.
(Even the stamp on the passport indicating that you arrive in Sabah is said to be fake. They compared it to the real stamp that should have been stamped in Sabah.)
“Pero ang nakukumpirma nila, ito credible information na ng aming committee, subcommittee, dumating kayo sa Kuala Lumpur nung July 18,” Hontiveros added.
(But what they confirmed, and this is a credible information of the subcommittee, you arrived in Kuala Lumpuro on July 18.)
Her information contradicted Shiela’s testimony during the panel’s hearing last August 27.
Hontiveros recalled Shiela saying during the last hearing that she and her sibling Wesley, along with Alice, left the Philippines by sea on July 18.
READ: ‘Unbelievable’: Remulla doubts Guo family’s boat escape story
They supposedly arrived in Xiān běn nà (Chinese name of Semporna), which is located in Sabah, Malaysia.
“Naalala mo ba kung natatakan yung passport mo dun sa Xiān běn nà? Natatakan ba agad yun pagdating nyo dun?” Hontiveros asked.
(Do you remember if your passport was stamped there in Xiān běn nà? Was it stamped immediately upon your arrival?)
“Hindi sya natatakan. Dere-deretso kami sa Malaysia. Malaysia ba yung sa Xiān běn nà? Hindi ko po alam e,” Shiela answered.
(It wasn’t stamped. We went straight to Malaysia. Is Xiān běn nà in Malaysia? I’m not sure.)
Hontiveros presented again before the committee a copy of Shiela’s passport supposedly bearing a Sabah stamp.
“Ipinakita na namin ito noong nakaraang hearing. May tatak yung pasport mo ‘entered Sabah.’ So may tatak. Ang problema, hindi nagma-match ang stamp sa totoong dapat na stamp kung Sabah talaga ang baba ninyo,” the senator said.
(We showed this in the previous hearing. Your passport has a stamp that says ‘entered Sabah.’ So there is a stamp. The problem is, the stamp doesn’t match the genuine stamp that should be used if you had really disembarked in Sabah.)
“According to these stamps, July 18 or basa ng iba July 19 kayo pumasok sa Malayasia pero via Kuala Lumpur. Kasi yung ganyang klaseng stamp daw ay itatatak lang sa passport kung galing ng KL at July 19 ka lang pumasok sa Sabah, ayon sa stamp na yan. Samakatuwid, nauna ka dapat sa Kuala Lumpur kaysa sa Sabah,” she said.
(According to these stamps, you entered Malaysia on July 18 or, as some read it, July 19, but via Kuala Lumpur. This kind of stamp is used only for arrivals from KL, and the stamp indicates that you only entered Sabah on July 19. Therefore, you should have arrived in Kuala Lumpur before Sabah.)
Shiela earlier told the committee that from their farm in Bamban, Tarlac, a van fetched them and they traveled for about five hours before arriving at a port where they boarded a small white boat.
They later transferred to a big fishing boat and another boat before arriving in Sabah and spent four to five days there.
From Malaysia, they flew to Singapore and stayed for several days there before taking a ferry to Batam, Indonesia.
READ: Shiela Guo, Cassandra Ong back in PH after arrest in Indonesia
Three days after arriving in Indonesia on August 18, Shiela and Alice’s business partner, Cassandra Ong, was arrested by Indonesian authorities.
Alice was also arrested in Indonesia but only on September 4.
The dismissed mayor has been ordered arrested by the Senate for her repeated failure to attend the past hearings of the chamber’s committee on women, headed by Hontiveros.