Alice Guo, siblings escaped the Philippines by boat | The wRap

  • 2 months ago
Here are today’s headlines – the latest news in the Philippines and around the world:

- Alice Guo and siblings fled Philippines by boat
- In rare move, House defers 2025 budget deliberations for Sara Duterte-led OVP 
- COA issues P73-M notice of disallowance on Sara Duterte’s secret funds
- Quiboloy group secures temporary protection order from Davao court 
- Sandro Muhlach reveals forced drug use before alleged sexual assault


https://www.rappler.com/video/daily-wrap/august-27-2024/

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Transcript
00:00Today on Rappler
00:12Sheila Guo, the supposed sister of Alice Guo, confirms they escaped the Philippines by boat.
00:18A House panel differs approving the budget of Vice President Sara Duterte's office after
00:23she refused to answer lawmakers' questions.
00:26The Commission on Audit orders Vice President Sara Duterte's office to return Php 73 million
00:31in confidential funds from 2022.
00:34A Davao court issues a temporary protection order in favor of fugitive preacher Apollo
00:38Kiboloy's church, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
00:41And actor Sandro Mulac reveals he was forced to use drugs before being sexually assaulted.
00:48Sheila Guo, the supposed sister of dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo, tells a Senate panel
00:53she, Alice, and their supposed brother Wesley Guo fled the Philippines by boat.
00:58But she claims to have forgotten specifics like dates and exact locations, so government
01:02operatives had to build a theory based on her testimony.
01:06She says the three of them were fetched from Tarlac by a van, and they reached the port
01:09after five hours.
01:11Sheila says she doesn't know the port's location.
01:14They then took a speedboat from this point, which the panel believes was somewhere in
01:17Luzon.
01:19After that, they rode a bigger boat for four days, then transferred yet again to a small
01:23boat.
01:24Sheila said the destination was Malaysia through Sabah.
01:27This conflicts with information supplied by the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission,
01:31which said Alice Guo arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Denpasar, Indonesia, on July
01:3618.
01:37A rare move.
01:39A panel of the House of Representatives defers approving the proposed budget of Vice President
01:44Sara Duterte's office after she refused to answer any of the panel's questions.
01:48Madam Chair, I will forgo the opportunity to defend the Office of the Vice President
01:522025 budget proposal.
01:55Duterte kept repeating this line, which visibly irked several lawmakers on the panel.
02:00Deferring the OVP's budget is unprecedented for the House.
02:03It normally approves the proposed amount only after a few easy questions.
02:07It's also in stark contrast to how the panel treated Duterte in 2022 and 2023, when they
02:13let her breathe through the proceedings in less than 20 minutes.
02:16This time, the hearing ran for more than five hours.
02:19The panel set another hearing for September 10.
02:22The OVP is requesting a budget of over 2 billion pesos for 2025, an increase from this year's
02:27budget of over 1.8 billion pesos.
02:32The Commission on Audit disallows 73 million pesos worth of confidential funds in the 2022
02:38budget of the Office of the Vice President.
02:40This allowance means the concerned agency is being ordered to return the funds in question.
02:45State auditors flagged the OVP for, quote, non-submission of documents evidencing the
02:49success of information gathering and or surveillance, broken down as follows.
02:55COA also flagged 3.5 million pesos worth of tables, chairs, desktop computers, and printers
03:01charged to confidential funds without specifying that they were intended for confidential operations.
03:07Citing a COA audit report, House Deputy Minority Leader Franz Castro also gave a breakdown of
03:13how the OVP used 125 million pesos in confidential funds in 2022.
03:21A regional court in Davao City issues a temporary protection order in favor of fugitive preacher
03:25Apolo K. Boloy's Kingdom of Jesus Christ Tuesday, August 27.
03:30It also directs the police to immediately remove everything restricting access to and
03:34from the group's 30-hectare compound.
03:36The court says authorities trampled not only on the property rights of the petitioners,
03:41but also the exercise of their religious and academic rights.
03:44Interior Secretary Benhur Abalo says police operations inside the KOJC property will continue,
03:50but authorities will follow the Davao court's order to remove barriers.
03:54The court order came hours after KOJC lawyer Israelito Torreon alleged the police began
03:59drilling inside a school owned by Kibuloy.
04:02Torreon questioned the use of an arrest warrant to justify searching and barricading the property.
04:07The police earlier said they suspect Kibuloy is hiding in the KOJC compound.
04:16Sandro Mulac says he was forced to use illegal drugs by GMA independent contractors Giorgio
04:21Nones and Richard Cruz before they sexually assaulted him.
04:25The 23-year-old artist said this at a Senate hearing Tuesday, August 27, which he joined
04:30virtually.
04:32He says after being introduced by Nones to a drunk Cruz, Nones made him drink wine, gave
04:36him a 500-peso bill, and took out an unidentified white substance.
04:41Senator Jingo Estrada asked Mulac if both Nones and Cruz, quote, took turns, to which
04:58Mulac replied, yes.
05:01Nones invoked his right against self-incrimination when asked if he would deny the allegations.
05:06Cruz was absent from the hearing.

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