August 30, 2024
MANILA – For the past five months, the Philippines has been gripped by the many mysteries surrounding the now-dismissed mayor of an obscure town whose identity is just as shrouded in obscurity.
The woman in question is Alice Leal Guo, a.k.a. the Chinese national Guo Hua Ping who, until a few months ago, was unknown to most people of the country except her former constituents, in the second-class municipality of Bamban in the central Philippine province of Tarlac.
The long-haired, light-skinned, and perpetually poised 33-year-old has found herself in the middle of a political maelstrom, the twists and turns of which could rival the plot of top-rated dramas, or what Filipinos call telenovelas.
Amid tensions between the Philippines and China over the West Philippine Sea, Ms Guo’s sketchy background has become one of national importance. Some of the questions being asked are whether she is a Chinese spy, or if she is part of a large criminal syndicate. Or is she both?
But the question of the moment is: Where is Alice Guo now?
A quick recap
The Alice Guo debacle’s beginnings could be traced back to March 13, 2024, when news broke about a raid led by the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission (PAOCC) at one of the biggest offshore gaming operations compounds in Bamban, over alleged human trafficking and illegal detention of people.
A total of 408 people – 234 Filipinos, 107 Chinese, 58 Vietnamese, 6 Malaysians, 2 Rwandans, and a Taiwanese – were taken in by the authorities at that time, Rappler said. Ms Guo’s name was not mentioned in that article.
Thirteen days later, on March 26, her name surfaced in news reports.
In a statement issued a day earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who is active in the Senate’s probe in this case, said there were “damning pieces of evidence that Mayor (Alice) Guo might be involved in the operation of this POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operators) facility that is now implicated in various criminal activities. The DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) should look closely into the matter,” he was quoted as saying in a Rappler report.
POGOs are firms operating in the Philippines that offer online gambling services to markets outside the country, with a significant portion catering to the Chinese.
According to authorities, Guo left the Philippines for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 18 using her Philippine passport. PHOTO: ALICE LEAL GUO FACEBOOK
From that day onwards, hardly a day has passed without local news outlets carrying her name. Even regional and international media companies have been following the story.
Several months and countless articles later, more questions beg to be answered—among them her real identity and the truth as regards her ties to POGOs. But before these can be answered, Ms Guo has managed to slip past authorities and leave the country she claims is her motherland.
Who is Alice Guo, according to Alice Guo?
Many of those who have watched this national saga unfold would know that Ms Guo, according to Ms Guo, is a girl who grew up on a farm, the love child of a Chinese father and his Filipino maid, as reported by the BBC.
Her mother, Ms Guo lamented, left them when she was a baby. Her father raised her and her siblings all by himself on that farm in a quiet municipality a few hours north of Metro Manila.
She, according to her own account that has been widely reported, had her birth certificate registered only when she was 17 years old. She said she was born in a house, instead of a hospital; homeschooled, and had no friends. She added that she was ashamed of being illegitimate, and that is why she largely stayed inside the family’s pig farm.
All these she shared while being questioned at a Senate hearing, by increasingly incensed senators on May 7.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who presided over the hearing, could not help but wonder: Is this woman, who “came out of nowhere” to become mayor, (is) in fact an “asset” planted by China to infiltrate Philippine politics and government?
Several other developments arose since that May 7 hearing, each of which has been consolidated by the Philippine Daily Inquirer into a timeline.
Among the major events is the Ombudsman’s suspension of Ms Guo as Bamban mayor in an order dated May 31, leading to her dismissal by the same agency on Aug 13, after she was found guilty of grave misconduct.
According to the 25-page decision approved by Ombudsman Samuel Martires, the investigating team referred to, among others, Ms Guo’s purchase in 2019 of the property of Baofu Land Development Inc., where two POGOs—Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc. and Zun Yuan Technology—were eventually raided for operating without licenses or for running illegal businesses.
The Ombudsman probers pointed out that Ms Guo, as Baofu president and then Bamban mayor, applied for multiple clearances to construct POGO facilities, as per an Inquirer article. They also noted that she did not revoke or cancel the permit of Hongsheng following its raid in February 2023 for allegedly operating a cryptocurrency investment scam.
“This is a clear conflict of interest. The element of corruption… [is] quite evident,” they stressed.
This image from the Facebook page of Sen. Risa Hontiveros shows the Philippine passport of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo and her travel details to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Hontiveros has said that Ms Guo, who was linked to a raided Pogo hub in her town, left the country on July 18. PHOTO: SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS’ FACEBOOK PAGE/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
Ms Guo ran for mayor in the 2022 election, her first foray into politics. An independent candidate, she won a seven-cornered fight, garnering 16,503 votes and defeating her closest rival, barangay (village) chief Joey Salting, by only 468 votes, as per Rappler.
Another crucial development happened on June 27 when the NBI confirmed what most already suspected: Ms Alice Guo and Guo Hua Ping were the same person because their fingerprints matched.
Then, on Aug. 19, Sen. Hontiveros revealed that Ms Guo had already left the Philippines for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 18, using her Philippine passport. The Bureau of Immigration said she may have left the Philippines illegally without passing through the required immigration checks.
Ms Guo’s camp insisted, however, that she was still in the country and even had her counter-affidavit personally notarised.
Where is Alice Guo?
Just when some of the questions surrounding the former mayor-turned-fugitive have been answered, an even bigger question surfaced: Where is Alice Guo?
The Asia News Network interviewed Senator Gatchalian on the Alice Guo case, on Aug. 24, two days after Katherine Cassandra Li Ong, a business associate of Alice Guo, and Ms Guo’s sister Shiela were apprehended in Indonesia on Aug 22, and flown back to the Philippines on the same day.
According to the National Bureau of Investigation, Ms Shiela is also known as the Chinese national Zhang Mier, as reported on the South China Morning Post. She “fraudulently acquired” a Philippine passport, officials said upon examining her fingerprints and relevant passport records, as reported by GMA News.
According to the Bureau of Immigration, she will be charged for violating the Philippine Immigration Law for allegedly misrepresenting herself as a Filipino citizen.
On Tuesday, Aug 27, Ms Shiela confirmed during a Senate inquiry that she, Ms Guo and her brother Wesley fled the Philippines by boat, according to a report by Rappler. The siblings were taken from their Bamban farm by a van to a port where they boarded a small white boat last July.
After about five hours, they were transferred to a bigger boat and then a small vessel before arriving in Sabah, Malaysia. From there, the trio traveled to Singapore and met Ms Ong, who accompanied them to Indonesia’s Batam in August.
When asked why Ms Guo was able to flee the country, Sen. Gatchalian said that filing cases takes time. “If you look at the timeline, the last time Alice Guo was in a hearing at the Senate was May 22. From May 22 onwards, cases were filed against her. But cases take time, especially cases like human trafficking and money laundering,” he said.
Philippine Senator Sherwin Gatchalian speaks to the Asia News Network on Aug. 24. PHOTO: JOHANNA AÑES-DE LA CRUZ
“These are very complex cases—it takes time to write them, gather evidence, and for prosecutors to process. Those cases are not yet filed in courts, that’s why there’s no court order that will warrant a hold departure order.”
Sen. Gatchalian further explained that there were only two orders issued against Ong and Shiela Guo, which came from the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“These weren’t even warrants of arrest, just an order of arrest. Under our rules, the only basis for a ‘hold departure’ order is a court order,” he said.
“But since cases are not yet filed in court, the court has not issued any hold departure order. In lieu of a hold departure order, a lookout bulletin was issued,” he told ANN.
There is a difference in the implication of the two orders. A hold departure order is a directive issued by a court to prevent an individual from leaving the Philippines. Generally, this is done to ensure that a person facing criminal charges remains in the jurisdiction throughout the legal process. While a lookout bulletin only serves to flag to government entities that a person of interest attempted to leave the country.
Sen. Gatchalian, meanwhile, remains positive that Alice Guo will be found soon. “I’m very optimistic that eventually she will be arrested in Indonesia. The entire Philippine and Indonesian government enforcement arms are looking for her. It’s only a matter of time before she will be apprehended,” he said.
Despite his optimism, the Senator conceded that Ms Guo is a very sophisticated criminal and well connected.
“There is still a possibility that she’ll go where the government can’t reach her. But I’m very optimistic. After the apprehension of the two (Li and Shiela Guo), I’m optimistic that eventually she’ll be caught.”
In the instance that Ms Guo gets apprehended, Sen. Gatchalian said that she will be brought to the Senate after the executive enforcement agencies process her.
“In the case of Guo Hua Ping, there’s only one arrest order issued and that’s from the Senate. Hopefully at that time cases have already been filed in court and a definitive hold departure order will be issued.”
The cases filed against Ms Guo, the Senator explained, are on human trafficking which is non-bailable. “She will probably be arrested and put in jail while waiting for her cases to be heard.”
As of Aug 29, Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Ms Guo will also face perjury and disobedience to summons charges, which the Senate plans to file before a local court within the week.
A learning experience
The case of Ms Guo slipping past authorities has become a source of embarrassment for the Philippine government. Sen. Gatchalian said that her escape is not the first of its kind and mentioned those of former Congressman Arnie Teves who is now in East Timor on charges of multiple murder and whose appeal against his extradition was recently denied by the Justice Department.
There are also other well-known fugitives such as Apollo Quiboloy who is currently facing sexual abuse and human trafficking charges.
“But in the case of Alice Guo, when she slipped out of the country, it’s not only national but international shame. The whole world is looking at the case,” the Senator said, adding that even his friends in the US are invested in the whole Alice Guo fiasco.
Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz shares this undated photo, which, he says , shows dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with members of the media on Thursday, August 22, 2024. PHOTO: PAOCC/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
“We have to learn from that mistake,” the Senator firmly said, adding that if there is indeed a backdoor route through which unscrupulous individuals are able to slip past the authorities then that should be “covered,” he said.
“Because if not, this will recur over and over again, then this will not be the last high-profile case that the country will have,” he added.
The tip of an iceberg
The Alice Guo case compels one to ask if there are others like her and if she is just the tip of an iceberg.
“Yes, there are many, many more Alice Guos out there,” Sen. Gatchalian said.
“In one of our hearings in the Blue Ribbon Committee, it was discovered that one municipality issued 1,200 late registration birth certificates, of which 50 were confirmed spurious or irregular, meaning those applicants can no longer be found in that municipality.”
On July 17, 2024, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published a report detailing Sen. Gatchalian’s statement where he, along with other senators called on appropriate state agencies to go after these “1,200 Alice Guos,” or Chinese nationals, who allegedly obtained Filipino citizenship by securing bogus birth certificates in Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur province.
Shiela Leal Guo, sister of former Bamban mayor Alice Guo, made her first appearance at the Senate hearing Tuesday, August 27, 2024. PHOTO: SENATE PUBLIC RELATIONS AND INFORMATION BUREAU/PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
During the hearing, the Senator shared that the 1,200 late registrations happened in a span of ten years. “It did not happen overnight,” he emphasised.
“To be honest, it’s very difficult to do due diligence because you have to backtrack everything, you have to locate these people,” he continued.
“The scary part is there are other Alice Guos out there. But government just needs to do due diligence. If we have to cancel those late (birth) registrations, we have to do it.”
The Senator explained that there are syndicates who operate this kind of modus operandi wherein they collect a certain amount from interested individuals, and upon payment process all the documents they need – including birth certificates and a Philippine passport.
“They can even get a driver’s license for you. The running price for this type of operation is P300,000 (US$5,326). I heard that from another source but the (incumbent) mayor corroborated that story,” he said.
Sen. Gatchalian added: “That’s scary, if you have P300,000 you don’t have to go through the naturalisation process which takes time and you need a lawyer to do it and you can become a Filipino by that birth certificate.”
As of writing, Aug. 30, 2:00 pm (Manila time), the whereabouts of Alice Guo a.k.a. Guo Hua Ping are still unknown.