SENATOR Risa Hontiveros questions Immigration Commission Norman Tansingco regarding the timeline and actions taken by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) concerning the flight of former Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo from the Philippines.
“When did the BI know that Alice Guo has fled the country?” Hontiveros asked during a public hearing conducted by the Committee on Justice and Human Rights Tuesday, August 27, 2024, on a privilege speech delivered by the senator last August 19 urging the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to cancel Guo’s Philippine passport.
Tansingco said they received information on Guo from the Philippine National Police on the 15th of August or four days before Hontiveros delivered her privilege speech but finished validating the data on the 19th to 20th of August.
Hontiveros, who posed the same question to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Department of Justice, said a better and more timely coordination should have been taken by the concerned agencies.
“Just a note to Commissioner Tansingco…you assured us in a previous hearing that the BI would not allow Alice Guo to leave the country. Yet, it would seem that Alice Guo had slipped from the grasp of the BI, the very agency responsible of guarding our borders,” Hontiveros said in Filipino. Hontiveros disclosed that Alice Guo, her sister, Shiela, brother, Wesley, and their companion Cassandra Li Ong, presented Philippine passports before Indonesian immigration.
She said this would not had been possible had the DFA immediately cancelled their passports following the fingerprint match with Guo Hua Ping, who is clearly not a Filipino. Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau
