MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. promised to “expose the culprits” who helped the Philippine exit of a dismissed town mayor accused of faking her Filipino citizenship and having links to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in her town.
“The departure of Alice Guo has laid bare the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes public trust. LET ME BE CLEAR: Heads will roll,” Marcos said in a statement released on his social media pages early morning Wednesday, August 21.
Hours prior, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla announced a “thorough investigation into the reported escape of Guo.”
“We will expose the culprits who have betrayed the people’s trust and aided in her flight. A full-scale investigation is already underway, and those responsible will be suspended and will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Marcos.
Remulla earlier ordered Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco to submit a report “immediately” on how Guo was able to exit the Philippines.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of two legislators who spearheaded the probe into Guo and her POGO links, revealed on August 19 that the embattled former Bamban mayor had apparently exited the Philippines on July 18 via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Rappler intelligence sources indicate that Guo then travelled to Singapore and eventually to Batam, Indonesia.
“There is no room in this government for anyone who places personal interest above serving the Filipino people with honor, integrity and justice,” the President added. It is not clear, as of posting, if Marcos was also referring to the probe Remulla ordered, or if he wants a wider investigation that goes beyond the justice department.
For instance, a probe could include police units who should have been keeping tabs on Guo’s whereabouts.
Remulla has cast the probe’s net to include “the possibility that the camp or legal counsels of the embattled ex-mayor may have had a hand in her slippery exit from the Philippines.”
“Let me reiterate that as much as lawyers have an obligation to protect the interests of their clients, they also have a broader responsibility to uphold the Rule of Law and safeguard public interest,” he said.
Guo, elected mayor of Bamban town in 2022, faces a slew of cases and complaints following a law enforcement operation in her town and series of dramatic Senate probes where her links to POGOs in Bamban and questions about her real identity were first revealed.
Guo has been accused of either being part of a large criminal scheme that involved the trafficking and torture of workers or being a spy for China. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian also previously revealed that Guo may have entered the Philippines as a Chinese national in the early 2000s.
Ahead of her reported exit from the Philippines in mid-July, Guo or Guo Hua Ping, if documents unearthed by senators are to be believed, faced a barrage of cases and complaints — an arrest warrant issued by the Senate, a tax evasion complaint, a trafficking complaint over the raided POGO operation in Bamban, and a complaint that seeks to nullify her proclamation as mayor over her citizenship. She has since been dismissed by the Ombudsman over “grave misconduct.”
Marcos earlier expressed support for probes into Guo — by the Senate and the BI — pointing out that “none” of the politicians in the province of Tarlac knew where she came from.
Guo, seemingly in response to Marcos’ statements in May, then posted photos of herself with Marcos taken during the 2022 campaign. Marcos belittled the importance of those photos, telling reporters in a subsequent chance interview that it “proves nothing” because he took “maybe a thousand” photos daily when he was running for president. – Rappler.com
