By Liza Soriano
MANILA — Senator Win Gatchalian announced on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, that he will question law enforcement agencies on their use of intelligence funds, following the escape of dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo.
“Our law enforcement agencies clearly have shortcomings when it comes to intelligence. Once we begin deliberating their budgets for 2025, I will certainly ask how these agencies are spending their intelligence funds and how they are building an effective intelligence network,” Gatchalian stated.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, emphasized that the intelligence community should have tracked Alice Guo’s whereabouts after her last appearance at a Senate hearing on May 22.
“They were able to freely move between different locations or reach a port. What happened to the network that our enforcement agencies established?” Gatchalian questioned, referencing a statement made by Sheila Guo.
He also criticized the slow progress in filing charges against Alice Guo and her associates, who are implicated in operating illegal POGO hubs.
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