MANILA, Philippines — Did the Guo "sisters" lie about how they fled to Malaysia? The Bureau of Immigration (BI) believes so.
Tuesday’s Senate hearing on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) had no shortage of revelations. This included the BI’s preliminary findings as to how the Guo family escaped from the Philippines.
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BI officer-in-charge Joel Viado, who replaced former chief Norman Tansingco after the latter was sacked due to lapses in the Guo cases, said the agency was able to verify that Guo entered the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 18.
“Based on our validation, it was confirmed what Senator Hontiveros said, that the subject, Alice Guo, entered Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 18, at 12:17 pm,” Viado said.
At previous hearings, both Alice and her supposed sister Shiela Guo had said they escaped the country on boat. Alice even specified that they escaped through a yacht.
However, both were unable to provide specific details on their escape, citing either their pending court cases or plain forgetfulness.
Viado explained that at the time of the Guos escape, tropical cyclones Butchoy and Carina were in the process of developing. While there were no tropical cyclone wind signal warnings hoisted, there was still inclement weather and rough waves.
This made it unlikely that they escaped through the sea, traveling to Sabah before going to Malaysia.
“Air flights were only delayed or moved but this lowers the possibility of going the route via sea because of the tropical depression and the typhoons which eventually developed,” Viado said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada asked Viado if this meant that Shiela was lying when she said that they escaped the country through a boat.
“We might presume that,” Viado said.
Viado said that while there was a Sabah stamp on their passport, it was proven to be falsified. Based on the BI’s search, there were no records that the Guos were in Sabah at all.
The BI is still working on tracing back the Guos’ entrance to Malaysia to discover how she slipped through authorities.
The acting BI chief said it was also unlikely that they hopped on a commercial flight, since they were high-profile personalities and there were stringent security measures.
Alice, who has become known nationwide due to her alleged ties to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, slipped past authorities despite the Senate’s warrant of arrest for her. She was able to travel to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia before Sen. Risa Hontiveros made the bombshell revelation that Alice had escaped the country.
Shiela has admitted that she is not related to Alice by blood, but said she just went along with what the former mayor would say.