House quad panel to invite Guo to POGO probe

MANILA: The quad committee of the House of Representatives will invite dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo as a resource person in its ongoing probe into the unlawful activities linked to Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs). During its fourth hearing on Wednesday, Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, chairperson of the quad committee and dangerous drugs panel, said they would coordinate with the Senate to arrange for Guo to participate in the investigation. Guo, who was apprehended by the Indonesian police in Jakarta on Tuesday night, is allegedly involved in the illegal POGO operations in Bamban, Tarlac. House Committee on Public Order and Safety chairperson Dan Fernandez noted that Guo had already been invited to the previous hearings conducted by his committee and this had been elevated to the quad committee. "If that is the case, then the invitation made in the previous committees prior to the creation of quad comm still stands. She has an invitation on this committee and we will coordinate with the Senate as to her availability in order to be able to attend our committee hearings on the issue of illegal POGOs," Barbers said. Guo was able to leave the country on July 18, despite being the subject of an immigration lookout bulletin due to the ongoing investigations. She reportedly headed to Malaysia, arrived in Singapore on July 21, and traveled to Indonesia on Aug. 18. 'Powerful people' House quad panel co-chair Dan Fernandez believed that 'powerful people' are behind the interconnected operations of POGOs, illegal drugs, extra-judicial killings, and other related crimes. 'By now, there can be no doubt in anyone's mind that powerful people are behind this large-scale, multi-billion-peso criminal enterprise involving drug trafficking, POGOS, and extra-judicial killings,' the congressman of Sta. Rosa, Laguna said in his opening statement. Fernandez, chair of the House Committee on Public Safety, said the fact that several key personalities of POGO corporations have man aged to evade the law 'speaks volumes of the power they wield and the resources at their disposal.' He said the quad committee would not stop to find the powerful people despite the accusations that the House hearing was politically motivated. Fernandez said in the next quad panel hearings, he would move to invite powerful personalities, including Hongjiang Yang, brother of Micheal Yang who served as presidential economic adviser under former President Rodrigo Duterte. Barbers, for his part, said he wants to unravel the web of extrajudicial killings, the collusion between a well-organized syndicate and government officials in the drug trade, and the criminal activities linked to POGOs. 'In our previous hearings, serious allegations came to light. Witnesses claimed that former President Rodrigo Duterte was directly involved in the execution of Chinese drug personalities while they were detained in Davao,' Barbers said in his opening remarks. 'Such accusations, if proven true, reveal a systematic abuse of power and a deliberate elimination of individuals for financial gain, all under the pretext of maintaining public order,' he added. Manila Rep. Bienvenido 'Benny' Abante, chair of the Committee on Human Rights, said the testimonies gathered by the panel clearly 'illustrate the interconnectedness of wrongdoing, the domino effect of sin - of how evil begets evil.' 'Sana po (Hopefully), in the course of our hearings, we can all finally open our eyes to the fact that the evil of gambling extends far beyond personal sin: it is a societal evil, one that can corrupt our country and destroy lives,' he added. Source: Philippines News agency