Senate President Francis Escudero said on Thursday that Sheila Guo—the sister of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo—will stay at the Senate detention facility upon her arrival in Manila from Jakarta, Indonesia.
The younger Guo was deported alongside Cassandra Li Ong by Indonesian immigration authorities. They were escorted on their return flight to Manila by Philippine law enforcement authorities.
The Guo sisters have a standing warrant of arrest from the Senate after they were cited for contempt over their repeated failure to attend congressional hearings related to the illegal Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs).
Mayor Guo—known by her Chinese name as Guo Huaping—was linked to alleged POGO hubs in Bamban, Tarlac along with Ong, who represented Lucky South 99, the raided POGO site in Porac, Pampanga.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, chairperson of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations and gender equality, said they will resume the hearings on POGO on Tuesday next week, August 27.
Sheila Guo is expected to be brought to the Senate upon her arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 this afternoon or early evening. Ong, meanwhile, will be placed under the custody of the House of Representatives.
Santa Rosa City Rep. Danilo Fernandez moved that Ong be sent to a detention facility at Batasan Pambansa, where House lawmakers have been conducting separate congressional hearings related to the POGO controversy.
Ong, a businesswoman, had earlier been cited for contempt by the House of Representatives for her failure to attend the said hearings.
The Guo sisters and Ong reportedly fled the Philippines last month and had been traveling around Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia and Singapore, to evade charges.
