Dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo appears in the Senate on Monday, September 9, 2024, at the resumption of the Senate inquiry into the Pogo hub in Tarlac. INQUIRER.net / NOY MORCOSO
MANILA, Philippines — Suspected human trafficker and dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo said she only brought less than 20,000 dollars when she, together with Shiela and Wesley Guo, fled the Philippines in July.
Alice made the revelation during the Senate panel on women’s Monday hearing after she was asked by Sen. Joel Villanueva who paid for their expenses when they escaped.
“Paano yung paggastos niyo habang nandoon kayo sa ibang bansa? Gumagamit kayo ng cash? Gumagamit ka ng credit card?” asked Villanueva, to which Alice answered that they only used cash.
(What about your spending while you are abroad? Did you use cash? Did you use a credit card?)
“So maraming cash yung dala nyo — ibig sabihin. Kasi di mo alam kung ilang araw kayo so maraming cash yung dala mo dahil hindi ka gumamit ng credit card. Tama ba?” Villanueva pressed, but Alice only denied the scenario given by the senator.
(So that means you carried a lot of cash. Because you don’t know how many days you’re going to be there so you have a lot of cash with you because you didn’t use a credit card. Is that right?)
Later into the hearing, Alice said she shouldered all the expenses in Indonesia, similar to all their other trips abroad.
“Wala naman pong masyadong expenses pagdating namin doon. Flight ticket tapos pagkain lang po, tapos yung mismong tinirahan po namin,” said Alice.
(We didn’t have many expenses when we got there. It’s just flight tickets, food, and then the rent to the place where we lived.)
She then confessed that she only brought a single bag with personal items when she they left the Philippines.
“Maraming pera siguro no?” Villanueva asked. (It contains a lot of money, right?)
“Wala po. Tatlo po kami, less than 20,000 dollars po,” said Alice. The amount is equivalent to about P1 million according to Villanueva.
(No. There were three of us, and it’s only less than 20,000 dollars.)
Guo is subjected to scrutiny after the Senate panel on women bared her alleged ties to illegal pogo firm Zun Yuan Technology Inc. in Bamban, Tarlac.
READ: Arrest Alice Guo, others – Senate
Questions about her citizenship were also raised, leading to allegations that she is a Chinese spy — which she vehemently denied. The National Bureau of Investigation, however, earlier confirmed that she and Chinese national Guo Hua Ping are one.