How Alice Guo escaped, according to her sister

Metro Manila, Philippines – It took a late-night land journey and three boat transfers for dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo to flee the country, her sister, Shiela Guo revealed.

Shiela, who is in Senate custody for contempt, faced a hearing led by the committee on justice and human rights on Tuesday after she was deported from Indonesia last week.

Shiela said she left the country with her siblings, Alice and Wesley, during the first week of July. She said she could not remember the exact date, but that they boarded a van at night from their farm in Bamban.

“Siguro after dinner, 7 o 8, tapos ang dating namin hatinggabi (Maybe after dinner, around 7 or 8 pm then we arrived at the destination late night),” Shiela said.

“So, mga five hours by van (So around five hours by van),” Senator Risa Hontiveros, who led the hearing as subcommittee chairperson, deduced.

Shiela said they boarded a small white boat from an unknown location and traveled by sea until morning. They subsequently transferred to what she described as a “fishing ship” before boarding another small boat.

“Yung maliit naman na parang kulay blue or green (The boat seemed blue or green),” Shiela said.

She said she did not know the places they passed, but Wesley told her the destination’s Chinese name, which Senator Hontiveros identified as Sipadan Island in Sabah, Malaysia.

From there, Shiela said they flew to Singapore with the assistance of an unidentified woman. From Singapore, they took a ferry to Batam, Indonesia, where she and Wesley’s girlfriend, Cassandra Li Ong, were apprehended.

Ong is in the custody of the House of Representatives facing a contempt order for ignoring its separate investigation on illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO). She is linked to the POGO raided in Porac, Pampanga.

Despite her testimony during the hearing, Hontiveros said Shiela will remain under Senate detention because the committee on women, which cited her for contempt for skipping hearings, will conduct another investigation.

Hontiveros said the probes will continue to identify loopholes and punish officials or employees accountable for letting Alice Guo and her alleged cohorts go.

Alice Guo was last seen in Jakarta, Indonesia, according to the Bureau of Immigration.

Authorities are still trying to piece together the evidence to make sense of her escape route.

National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago said the Guos traveled by speedboat from Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, to Sabah. Meanwhile, Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty mentioned a possible exit point in Luzon.