Guo runs to SC; Senate arrest order looms

The camp of suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo yesterday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Senate from summoning her as a resource person in the hearing investigating the illegal offshore gaming hub in her town that was recently raided by authorities.

- MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

The lawyers of Guo filed before the SC a petition for certiorari, with prayer for annulment of subpoena and temporary restraining order against using the mayor as a resource person in the Senate.

Guo was cited in contempt yesterday and faces possible arrest after she snubbed for the second time the Senate investigation on her alleged links to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators.

Senate women and children committee chairperson Sen. Risa Hontiveros approved the motion to have Guo cited in contempt for skipping yesterday’s resumption of the investigation on illegal POGO scam hubs in Bamban, Tarlac and Porac, Pampanga.

In a 78-page petition for certiorari, Guo asked the high court to annul the subpoena ad testificandum issued by the Senate panel.

She argued that the Senate committee committed grave abuse of discretion, amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction, when it subjected the suspended mayor to “public persecution and humiliation, disregarding her constitutional rights.”

In an ambush interview after the hearing, Hontiveros expressed confidence that Senate President Francis Escudero would sign the arrest warrant that her committee would request against Guo over her contempt citation.