Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero has signed an arrest warrant on suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Leal Guo/Guo Hua Ping , her three siblings and parents and two others, who have snubbed Senate hearings investigating illegal Philippine Online Gaming Operators (Pogos) and the serious crimes associated with them. Also covered by the arrest warrant are her siblings Seimen, Sheila and Wesley Guo; and her parents Wenyi Lin and Jian Zhing Guo. The Senate sergeant at arms has deployed teams to enforce the order.
The nonrelatives covered by the arrest order are former government executive Dennis Cunanan and Nancy Gamo, believed to have facilitated most of the paper work for the companies used in the illegal Pogo hub in Tarlac. Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, earlier cited in contempt the eight people, on motion by Senators Jinggoy Escudero and Sherwin Gatchalian, and seconded by Nancy Binay.
The citation led to Escudero’s issuance of the arrest warrants. In a statement, Hontiveros said, “The issuance of the arrest order is only the first step to making Mayor Alice Guo or Guo Hua Ping accountable to our laws,” referring to the Chinese name of the embattled mayor, as ferreted out by an NBI fingerprint expert who compared the prints of the mayor and Guo Hua Ping, listed earlier as a dependent of a Chinese holder of a Philippine investoir visa. Hontiveros, meanwhile, also signed a subpoen.