WOMAN OF THE HOUR | Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo appears in the Sept. 19 hearing of the House quad committee investigating illegal activities linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators and the illegal drug trade. —House of Representatives photo
MANILA, Philippines — Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo was transferred to the Pasig City jail on Monday after more than two weeks of detention at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center at Camp Crame.
But things did not go according to plan after a “probable infection” in her left lung was discovered by doctors during a mandatory medical and physical examination at the PNP General Hospital before leaving Camp Crame.
PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said the “possible and suspected infection” was found during a chest X-ray.
READ: 7 alleged cohorts of Alice Guo surrender to NBI
There were no signs of respiratory illness on Guo’s medical checkup last Friday when she was originally set for transfer to the Pasig City jail, but it was postponed due to a pending legal procedure.
Guo was supposed to be detained with other 40 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) in a female dormitory as part of the initial plan.
Instead, she was placed in isolation in a 10-square-meter cell with three recovering inmates being treated for tuberculosis while confirmatory tests were being done, according to Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) spokesperson Col. Jayrex Bustinera.
“The three inmates have been taking medications for almost one month and the doctor assured them that they are no longer contagious. We’ll put her there to protect the general population,” he said.
Guo later tested negative for tuberculosis based on the Gene-Xpert results released in the afternoon.
“She will be housed in the regular cell with 43 other PDLs,” Bustinera said.
Currently, the female dormitory in the Pasig City jail has 135 inmates, exceeding its capacity of 36.
Fajardo said the suspected lung infection could have developed over the weekend.
Hold order scrapped
“She had a bit of a cough and colds earlier,” she told reporters. “It will now be the BJMP that will determine what kind of treatment, if there will be any treatment at all, [for] the suspected infection,” she said.
In a separate press briefing, Fajardo said Guo would remain in the Pasig jail unless the court orders her to return to the PNP since her lawyer filed a motion for her to stay at the PNP custodial center due to security concerns.
“We can’t transfer her back in the absence of any court order. We’re following the original court order. In the absence of a new court order, we’ll be on a status quo until a new order is issued,” she explained.
The Pasig court handling Guo’s trafficking case ordered a pause in her transfer of custody—a decision that came too late on Monday and was ultimately rendered moot, as she had already been taken to the Pasig City jail.
In a three-page order, Presiding Judge Annielyn Medes-Cabelis of the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 167 directed the chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to hold Guo’s custody transfer pending the resolution of a motion filed by her lawyers over the weekend.
On Sept. 19, the same court issued a warrant for Guo’s arrest for a qualified human trafficking charge against her, along with a commitment order to transfer her to the Pasig City jail female dormitory.
But the order was not immediately executed.
On Sept. 21, her legal counsel submitted a “very urgent motion (for Guo) to remain at the PNP Custodial Facility” to the Pasig RTC via email, requesting that she stay in Camp Crame due to “threats on her personal safety and security.”
Medes-Cabelis initially scheduled the motion for a hearing on Sept. 27 at 8:30 a.m., coinciding with the arraignment and pretrial conference for the trafficking case.
Since the dismissed mayor had already been transferred to the Pasig facility in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, the judge issued another order late Monday afternoon, saying that Guo’s motion had been rendered moot.
“The very urgent motion to remain at the PNP Custodial Facility filed by accused Guo is considered as moot. Consequently, the hearing of the subject motion is canceled,” the presiding judge said.
Nonbailable offense
Guo’s nonbailable case stemmed from the allegations that she was part of a “conspiracy” that allowed a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in her town to engage in human trafficking activities, among other crimes.
Also charged with trafficking are 14 other individuals, including former Technology and Livelihood Resource Center deputy director general Dennis Cunanan, who was tagged as the representative of Pogo hub Zun Yuan Technology. (See related story on this page.)
The charges against Guo and her 15 coaccused in Criminal Case No. R-PSG-24-02544-CR stems from the February 2023 raid on Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc. (later renamed Zun Yuan Technology), which operated a Pogo hub in Bamban, Tarlac, where more than 800 suspected victims of human trafficking, at least 350 of them foreigners, were rescued.
Guo is also facing graft and corruption charges before the Valenzuela RTC Branch 282, a case transferred from the Tarlac RTC Branch 109.
Guo fled the country last July 18 but was arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sept. 4 and flown back to the country on Sept. 6.
The dismissed mayor had been cited for contempt by a Senate panel investigating crimes linked to Pogo hubs due to her failure to attend its hearings.