Upper chamber lawmakers grill Bamban Mayor Alice Guo during Senate probe on illegal POGOs
Upper chamber lawmakers grill Bamban Mayor Alice Guo during Senate probe on illegal POGOs
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00:00An elected local official, first and foremost, must be honest about every significant detail
00:06about his or her personal background, especially pertaining to citizenship, as it can be a
00:12ground for disqualification from office.
00:15During today's Senate hearing, lawmakers found not only inconsistencies in Bamban Mayor
00:21Alice Gua's declarations, but also unearthed more information that could potentially cause
00:27her not only to lose her post, but also to be criminally charged.
00:32Daniel Manalastas has the full details.
00:37Controversial Bamban Mayor Alice Gua was grilled during the continuation of the Senate's
00:43hearing on illegal pogos.
00:44Senator Loren Legarda had this plea to the mayor.
00:48If you're really Chinese and fronting for other people, go back to your country.
00:53But if you are Filipino and you were born here, convince us.
00:58Legarda pushed the Bamban Mayor further.
01:01Please tell us about your father, who's from China, and he visits you, used to visit you
01:07when you were a child, and the family of your father in China.
01:12And where are you from China, in Phuket?
01:16In English, the interpretation would be, my father is from China.
01:35I am not a Chinese.
01:37I am a Filipino.
01:39Next, Senators grilled Gua's citizenship.
01:42How can you explain that the date of your parents' marriage is different in the three
01:49birth certificates of your three siblings, which your father confirmed, that Shiela,
01:56Ximen, and Gua are your siblings, but in your birth certificates, the date of their marriage
02:04is different.
02:05And the date of the marriage of the parents is also different.
02:09Your Honor, as much as possible, I don't know the answer, but I really don't know and I didn't
02:16prepare my birth certificate.
02:18It's like it's clear, you have a lot of holes in your statement, you're lying.
02:22Meanwhile, during Senator Sherwin Gatchalian's questioning.
02:25In the birth certificate, it's written that his father and mother are married, right?
02:33But in the PSA, you issued a marriage certificate that Angelito Gua and Amelia Leal are not married, right?
02:47That's right, Mr. Chair.
02:50So in the eyes of the law, they are not married?
02:52Yes.
02:53So there's a big possibility that this birth certificate is wrongly placed there, or it's not rightly placed there, right?
03:04That's right.
03:05So it means that the PSA of his father is not true?
03:10There's a high possibility.
03:12He lied that he's married, right?
03:14That's possible.
03:15Even Gua's assets also took front and center during the hearing, to include the issue of
03:21ownership on a helicopter.
03:23McLaren 620R, a high-end race car, which the mayor denied owning.
03:29In your income tax as mayor, you can't buy dump trucks and helicopters because your declared income is only P50,000.
03:45The helicopter I paid for came from my father.
03:53It's a car show in Concepcion.
03:55Since we're in the province, we just want to make our countrymen happy.
04:15Ford Expedition, GMC, truck, two more Fords, Toyota Land Cruiser, Isuzu truck, Honda HRV, Hyundai Tucson, BMW.
04:38I don't have their assets anymore.
04:39Especially in Baufu, I divested in 2021.
04:42For the Ford Expedition, I sold it in 2020.
04:47That's why I remembered it because I saw it inside the Baufu compound.
04:52For the Land Cruiser, I don't have it anymore.
04:55I don't remember having a Honda.
04:59I only heard about the others here, I only heard that they named me.
05:04But definitely, I don't have that car.
05:06Go's personal life was also fair game to the senators.
05:10Do you have a relationship with a public official?
05:12No, I don't.
05:13A lot of people have been linking me since the issue was opened.
05:18A lot of people have been linking me but I don't have a partner.
05:22Because I have received very reliable information that you have a living partner that manages the fog operations in your town.
05:34That's not true.
05:36Go reiterated that she is not in the fog business and neither she is a spy.
05:41Daniel Maranastas from the National TV Network for a new and better Philippines.