The inscrutable Alice Guo’s much-anticipated return to the Senate on Monday may not have delivered the satisfaction some lawmakers hoped for.
It did not take long before Senators cited her for contempt after she steadfastly refused to answer questions of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.
“I am Alice Guo,” she told panel chair Sen. Risa Hontiveros as she denied having borne the name Guo Hua Ping, her alleged alter-ego.
However, when asked about the identity of her parents, she confirmed that they were Guo Jian Zhong and Wen Yi Lin.
Guo also chose to be tight-lipped about identifying the people behind the supposed threat against her life, owing to “security concerns.”
“I’m sorry senator, but I couldn’t say it in public. I am concerned with my safety,” told a bemused Senator Jinggoy Estrada.
Senators Ronald Dela Rosa and Joel Villanueva did not have better luck squeezing information from her.
“That answer is unacceptable. She is trying to make a fool out of this committee, if that’s the case,” Dela Rosa responded.
“After you made a mockery of this committee, you now have the right to claim a death threat on your life which you couldn’t even justify,” Villanueva angrily replied.
“Isn’t it more natural to expose it in public so that you can be protected? Hiding it doesn’t make sense,” he added.
Hontiveros pleaded with Guo to “stop being evasive,” but her perceived defiance finally caused the committee chair to cite her for contempt.
However, Monday’s hearing was not a total loss as senators managed to get bits and pieces of information from their seemingly unreadable star witness.
Guo divulged some details of her escape from the Philippines in July, including the individual who allegedly initiated and facilitated it.
Senators managed to convince her to write down the name of the person who facilitated her clandestine departure although this was not made public by the committee.
“That person initiated our escape. He/she initially decided for me [on fleeing the Philippines], but later, I agreed because I heard there were threats on my life,” she said in Filipino.
She also insisted that no Filipino, whether a private citizen or a government official, had a hand in her escape.
“Not one Filipino or Filipina… None from [the Bureau of] Immigration… none. No government official helped [in their escape],” she claimed.
Estrada pointed out that this claim was “impossible.”
Guo also corroborated her purported “sister” Shiela’s claim that they fled the Philippines through a series of boat rides.
She noted that their cellphones were confiscated when they boarded the boat on a journey that supposedly lasted “for 3 to 5 days.”
The so-called “Queen of POGOs” claimed that midway through the journey she regretted her decision to flee the Philippines.
“I made a mistake [fleeing the Philippines], I wanted to go back,” she added.
