Dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo. —File photo by Marianne Bermudez | Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Monday said Guo, who is suspected to be a Chinese national, left the country more than a month ago without passing through the required immigration checks.
READ: Alice Guo out of PH, fled to Malaysia last month – Hontiveros
“The departure of Alice Guo has laid bare the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes public trust,” Marcos said on his Facebook and X accounts. “Let me be clear: Heads will roll.”
“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,” he said.
He wants results
The President said there was no room in government “for anyone who places personal interest above serving the Filipino people with honor, integrity and justice.”
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said Marcos wanted results of the investigation of Guo’s flight “as soon as feasible.”
Bersamin earlier ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to cancel Guo’s Philippine passport and that of her siblings Wesley and Sheila, and one of her business associates, Katherine Cassandra Ong.
In a memorandum to the DFA, Bersamin said the cancellation of the passports was “in the interest of national security.”
On Monday, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who has been leading a Senate inquiry into Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) which led to the evidence showing that Guo was a Chinese national, disclosed that the dismissed official left the Philippines for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 18.
Flight with siblings
The immigration bureau said Guo’s brother and sister flew to Singapore on July 21. Last Sunday, Guo, who has been identified as Guo Hua Ping, and her siblings all traveled to Indonesia via Batam Island.
Winston Casio, spokesperson for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said they had information from their counterparts in Indonesia that Guo was still in Batam.
On Wednesday, National Bureau of Investigation Director Jaime Santiago said the NBI had sought the help of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to track down Guo.
Last week, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Guo as mayor of Bamban for grave misconduct in connection with the Pogo operation in the town. She is still facing charges of graft, qualified trafficking, and tax evasion for allegedly failing to pay P500,000 in taxes.
The Senate has standing arrest warrants against Guo for refusing to appear in subsequent hearings on the criminal activities of illegal offshore gaming hubs in the country.
Cases to continue
Despite her escape, Senate President Francis Escudero said the senators would pursue the filing of a criminal case against Guo for perjury and for continued defiance of a subpoena issued by the chamber.
“We’ll see to it that it’s airtight so it would not be dismissed. She’s no longer here and if the case is dismissed, that would be embarrassing. So we have to make it right,” he said.
Escudero said that once the Department of Justice files the complaint and she does not respond, the court would declare her in default and an arrest warrant would be issued for her.
“The case would be pending until she appears in court,” he said. “If she is not found, the case would be archived and once she surfaces, an alias warrant of arrest can be issued against her.”
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said in a statement that Guo’s flight was a “temporary setback” and should not stop the government from prosecuting her.
“The cases should continue. She is now facing numerous charges. Her world will shrink, and the long arm of the law will eventually catch up to her,” he said.
Her refusal to attend Senate hearings also is a violation of the penal code, which punishes disobedience to summons issued by Congress, the senator said.
Slap on BI’s face
Gatchalian said that the Senate would ensure that those who aided her escape would be held liable.
“This is a slap in the face of the Bureau of Immigration, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and the airport manager concerned. You can’t just walk into an airport undetected, nor can you leave our airports undocumented,” he said, adding that there were numerous video cameras inside the airport all the way to the plane.
Casio said in a television interview on Wednesday that the PAOCC was dismayed that Guo had escaped.
“So, given the limited information we have, we are really having a hard time as we were caught off guard. So, obviously, somebody dropped the ball, so we really need a serious investigation into this,” he said.
But he said the government was not helpless as there were ways that could be used to bring Guo back to the country—the cancellation of her passport, extradition, and her arrest by the authorities in countries where she is found without a valid passport.
Blue notice, red notice
In addition, Interpol could monitor her movement under a “blue notice” and once a criminal case is filed against her, a “red notice” would allow her apprehension.
“So, there are many legal avenues available to the Philippine government to make sure that we would be able to account for her crimes in the country,” Casio said.
He said Guo did not appear in any commercial flight or immigration records.
She may have left the country from three possible locations—from the northernmost tip of Luzon, the westernmost tip of Luzon and the “Mindanao backdoor exit,” the PAOCC spokesperson said.
He noted that Guo had been in an immigration lookout bulletin order, which would trigger a report in case she left the country but no one had made a report.
“So, obviously she did not go through the immigration areas—airport, seaport—but she got out some way, somewhere, somehow,” he said. “So, somewhere along the line, it may be a matter of someone facilitating her escape or someone was negligent.”
‘It’s only right’
Hontiveros and Gatchalian praised the President for announcing that “heads will roll” over Guo’s departure from the country.
“It’s only right for the Chief Executive to hold accountable any executive agencies that were negligent or are actually accomplices,” Hontiveros said in a press conference. “It’s only right that somebody is held accountable. That’s the principle of transparency and accountability.”
She also welcomed actions taken by Bersamin and the DFA.
Hontiveros said the DFA had requested crossmatching the biometric records of Guo with those in the NBI and the BI so these could be used as “evidence to establish the fraudulent identity” of the dismissed mayor.
The DFA also has a “precautionary measure” that places Guo and her family in a passport watch list database “to prevent the issuance of new passports” to them.