Ex-mayor Alice Guo, who is accused of being a Chinese spy and having links to crime syndicates, faces the Philippine Senate on Sept 9. - PHOTO: OFFICE O SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS
MANILA (The Straits Times/ANN): Embattled former mayor Alice Guo said no Philippine government official helped her flee the country in July, amid ongoing investigations into her alleged ties to Chinese crime syndicates.
Guo, who is believed to be Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, faced the Philippine Senate on Sept 9 for the first time since she was arrested six days earlier in the Indonesian city of Tangerang, near the capital Jakarta.
“No Filipino helped me escape,” said Guo, who had evaded Philippine law enforcement agencies by fleeing to Malaysia, Singapore and then Indonesia in mid-July, despite the ongoing investigations.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had in August vowed that “heads will roll” following Guo’s controversial exit.
He fired immigration chief Norman Tansingco while the Senate hearing was ongoing on Sept 9, but lawmakers did not address this matter during the hearing before the Senate.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who presided over the Sept 9 hearing, asked Guo if she had allegedly paid a government official 200 million pesos (S$4.6 million) to flee the Philippines, citing an unnamed source for that information.
The former mayor denied this and said a foreigner of Asian descent had arranged getaway boat rides for her and her two siblings.
But she refused to give other details, citing threats to her life that senators doubted were true.
“You did not escape from the Philippines because of the death threats; you escaped from the Philippines because you’re trying to run from your cases,” said Senator Joel Villanueva.
The Senate has been investigating Guo since May after authorities linked her to a now-shutdown online casino, or Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo), which catered to overseas clients who are mostly Chinese.
The Pogo hub, shuttered by the government in March, was allegedly a front for scamming operations and other criminal activities. It was built on land Guo partially owned in the Tarlac province, some 108km north of Manila, where she was mayor of the sleepy town of Bamban.
Guo was also suspected of being a Chinese “asset”, after senators raised questions in May about whether she was truly born and raised in the Philippines.
Guo ran for office as a Philippine citizen but her fingerprints were later found to match those of a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping.
She is now facing a court-issued arrest warrant for graft charges and is being investigated for human trafficking, tax fraud and laundering criminal proceeds totalling 100 million pesos. She was stripped of her mayorship in August.
Guo’s case has captivated the nation as tensions rise between Manila and Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.
Guo has grabbed headlines since May after a Senate committee linked her to alleged criminal activities involving Pogos, the now-banned online casino industry.The Philippine authorities say these online casinos have lured foreign workers, including Chinese nationals, with promises of legal jobs in the country, only to trick them into working for scam hubs.
Political observers say the accusations against Guo have fuelled anti-Chinese sentiment among Filipinos, and led to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr banning Pogos on July 22 following public outrage over the illegal activities.
The controversial former mayor appeared twice before senators on May 7 and May 22, but gave evasive answers.
She refused to show up in successive hearings, prompting the Senate to issue an arrest warrant for her on July 13.
On Sept 9, senators were visibly frustrated with Guo because she gave them scant information about how exactly she escaped the Philippines along with her sibling Shiela, who is now also under Senate custody after she was extradited from Indonesia like Guo and her business associate Cassandra Li Ong; and her other sibling Wesley, who remains at large.
Instead, Guo followed what appeared to be a prepared script that she repeated during the five-hour hearing, to the dismay of senators.
“I don’t have any plans to evade your questions. But I have concerns about my safety so I can’t answer this in public,” Guo said repeatedly.
Under questioning, Guo only revealed that in mid-July, she and her siblings boarded a yacht from the capital Manila. Five hours later, they transferred to a bigger boat somewhere at sea and stayed there for about three to five days.
She said they transferred to a smaller boat, which then brought them to Malaysia. The Guo siblings then travelled to Singapore and finally to Indonesia, where they met with Ong.
Indonesian authorities later arrested Shiela Guo and Ong on Aug 22, then apprehended Guo herself on Sept 3.
Filipinos were outraged after government officials meant to escort Guo during her deportation casually posed with her for selfies, which went viral on social media.
When the senators then tried to get more details about the supposed death threats to Guo, she would only say that she had received five of them via her mobile phone since June.
Guo claimed she wanted to say more, but was afraid to do so because of the alleged threats.
However, Senator Jinggoy Estrada did not buy Guo’s posturing, and pointed a finger at her as he said: “If you really want to tell us, then say it! You’re pissing us off”.
Guo, however, stuck to her script. Senators cited her in contempt for lying and evading questions, which means she will be compelled to attend the forthcoming hearings.
Senator Win Gatchalian later told reporters that he doubts Guo’s claim that no Philippine government official aided her escape.
He believes the ex-mayor is protecting her accomplices and plans on tackling the matter at the next hearing.
“It’s not possible for a boat or yacht to just enter the country’s waters and bring people out of the Philippines undetected. If they entered international waters, they would have to file paperwork,” Mr Gatchalian told reporters after the hearing.
For now, Guo will remain detained at the Philippine National Police’s headquarters in Manila before facing the senators again.
But political analyst Michael Yusingco, a senior research fellow at the Manila-based think tank Ateneo Policy Centre, cautioned senators against abusing their legislative power by acting like prosecutors while going after Guo.
He told The Straits Times that senators should instead focus on how to address gaps in the country’s law enforcement system at subsequent hearings.
“There’s a level of weakness there (law enforcement) whose cause must be determined. Is it corruption? Is it lack of training? That should be the whole point of the investigation – to reform what’s wrong with the law enforcement apparatus,” said Mr Yusingco.
“The point of the investigation should not be to find evidence to prove who is guilty or not”. - The Straits Times/ANN
