The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on Saturday vowed to pursue the incarceration of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo and her cohorts in the Philippines amid challenges in bringing them to justice.
PAOCC spokesman Dr. Winston Casio made the remark after entertaining the possibility that Guo and her cohorts might escape imprisonment in the country if their passports and nationalities were canceled and revoked, respectively.
Despite this, however, the PAOCC is confident it can send the high-profile fugitives to Philippine jail and make them answer for their crimes against the Filipinos.
In a news forum in Quezon City, Casio explained that canceling the passports and revoking the nationalities of Guo and her cohorts might place them under the protection of international law.
PAOCC spokesman Dr. Winston Casio said Guo and her cohorts might “fall under the framework of the United Nations Commission for Refugees” if their passports were canceled and “they would become stateless individuals.”
“They would become refugees, and they would fall under the framework of the United Nations Commission for Refugees because they would take on a different legal character, and they would be protected by that legal character,” Casio pointed out.
Casio said that fugitives Guo and her cohorts, once captured, should be incarcerated in the Philippines.
“As far as the Commission is concerned, and as far as our team with IACAT (Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking) is concerned, we would want them to be incarcerated in the Philippines to answer for all their crimes in the country,” he said.
According to intelligence reports, Alice Guo, Sheila Guo, and Cassandra Ong entered Indonesia via a cruise ship from Singapore.
On Tuesday, August 20, Ong and Sheila Guo were arrested in Riau, Indonesia, while Alice was believed to have escaped.
Casio said the dismissed Bamban mayor may have taken refuge in the Golden Triangle, where her family has business interests.
Meanwhile, the Senate is set to receive Ong and Sheila Guo for a scheduled hearing of the Senate Committee on Justice on Aug. 27. PND
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