Alice Guo has been ordered suspended as mayor of Tarlac’s Bamban town by the Office of the Ombudsman. In an order dated May 31, 2024, signed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires, Guo was placed under preventive suspension without pay for a period not exceeding six months. The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier filed graft complaints against Guo and two other town officials. INQUIRER/RICHARD A. REYES
MANILA, Philippines — Alice Guo has been ordered suspended as mayor of Tarlac’s Bamban town by the Office of the Ombudsman.
In an order dated May 31, signed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires, Guo was placed under preventive suspension without pay for a period not exceeding six months.
Copies of the order, which granted the plea of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to suspend Guo and two other town officials, were released to the media on Monday, June 3.
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Grave Misconduct
The DILG earlier filed charges of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against Guo, Municipal Business Permits and Licensing Office officer Edwin Ocampo, and Municipal Legal Officer Adenn Sigua for allegedly allowing illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos) to do business in Bamban.
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Undersecretary Juan Victor Llamas represented the DILG in the case before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Preventive Suspension
Last May 18, Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. announced that the DILG recommended to the Office of the Ombudsman, the preventive suspension of the mayor so she could not influence the investigation launched against her.
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Abalos said the seven-man DILG task force investigating Guo’s reported link to a Pogo has already submitted their report, containing “troubling findings of serious illegal acts [that] may have severe legal implications.”
A Senate panel has also been probing into Guo’s supposed ties with Pogo, as well as her identity, over the possibility that she is a purported Chinese “asset” or spy trained to infiltrate the Philippine government.
Guo has repeatedly denied the accusations against her.