“The Senate must simply concentrate on the identities of those corrupt government officials who protected and benefited from POGO and help it become the monster that it is”
INSTEAD of being treated as a fugitive from justice, Alice Guo was treated like a celebrity deserving of a selfie with no less than the Chief, PNP and the SILG and a chartered jet ride from Indonesia.
It would seem that the only missing portion as one observer commented was a motorcade to complete the charade. It was altogether a weird spectacle that does not speak well on how we handle things of this nature.
Was it really necessary that the two top ranking officials had to be the ones to fetch Miss Guo from Jakarta?
To many people, it was an overkill.
A middle level law enforcement official would have sufficed.
But as we have seen, there were some people in the administration who apparently wanted to milk the occasion for whatever its worth.
But it seems that this has boomeranged.
Now, there are questions about motives because of the way the whole thing was choreographed.
The optics did not appear to have elicited praise from the public. Instead, a lot more questions are being asked together with some criticisms.
Some very suspicious minds are now thinking the plane ride may have been an opportunity to make a deal or give instructions to the ousted Mayor on what to do and what to say.
This should have been thought of carefully so as not to give the wrong impressions to the already confused public.
It was eerily reminiscent of the way Janet Napoles was treated when she was arrested.
She was brought to Camp Crame and then escorted to meet the President in the Palace.
Some are even also accusing the good DILG Secretary of grandstanding because of the coming 2025 elections wherein he is reportedly running for a Senate seat.
Guo’s subsequent appearance in the Senate also rekindled the circus atmosphere that characterized her first hearings before her escape.
Only this time, the Senators came in full force with a lot of their questions.
With due respect to them, it is very doubtful whether Alice Guo will reveal anything new.
This Senate hearing will almost certainly end up being like the Napoles hearings.
It will result in Guo being charged in court like Napoles with her taking all the blame without revealing who the masterminds are and those public officials who benefitted immensely from the POGO operations.
Like Napoles, she will keep her mouth shut. And as we have seen, Napoles was found guilty and is still languishing in jail.
It is a sad fact of life that sometimes in our judicial system, the more guilty ones remain free while those that were used end up holding the bag.
When all these will be over, both Alice Guo and Napoles will have plenty of time to compare notes in the women’s correctional facility because that is probably where Alice Guo is headed.
The only difference with the two cases is the amount of money involved and the damaged done to the country. POGO money dwarfs the amount in the Napoles case. In one report alone, Alice Guo was said to have paid P200M to some people for her escape.
No wonder those who were monitoring her suddenly became deaf and blind which aloud Alice Guo to escape.
And our good Senators want the ousted Mayor to put her safety in the hands of people who cannot locate her whereabouts before her escape?
Right now, the most important information that the public would want to know are the names of corrupt public officials who benefitted financially from the POGO operations and those who protected and connived with the foreign nationals who masterminded the financial scams, human trafficking, kidnappings and prostitutions that have blighted the country’s reputation.
The public is already satisfied that Alice Guo is in fact Guo Hua Ping.
Since there is an identity case filed in court against her, the Senate should just allow the court to be the one to declare her as an imposter.
The Senate must simply concentrate on the identities of those corrupt government officials who protected and benefited from POGO and help it become the monster that it is. Once that is done, the Senate can take a bow.
