Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo (HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Santa Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez said he will give his salary for two months to any Bureau of Immigration (BI) employee who can explain how dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo was able to leave the country.
At the latter part of the 14-hour House of Representatives’ quad committee hearing on Friday, Fernandez was calling out the BI for allowing Chinese nationals allegedly posing as half-Filipinos to get an Alien Employment Permit (AEP).
Eventually, Fernandez also criticized BI for allowing Guo to leave the country in July and wondered if the former mayor had any ties to the bureau.
“And, Mr. Chairman, I’ll be allotting […] my two-month salary here in Congress for the good people inside the Bureau of Immigration who can explain how Alice Guo was able to leave our country using our airports or seaports. Help us, (because) this quad comm is serious in cleaning our government. Join us,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure, Mr. Chairman, because I have checked the CAAP (Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines). CAAP, they have flights going to Kota Kinabalu, going to Singapore, from Clark and Subic, going to Palawan, where there were no passengers. And they know the ports. They know the seaports,” he added.
Fernandez said not all BI personnel are corrupt — which is why he is making a public appeal to look for those who can help the quad committee.
“They handle the division of checking those flights going out and going in. Our seaports and airports are not strict. And our people, not everyone in Immigration (is corrupt) — thank you to all those immigration officers and employees who are faithful to their duty — But, but to those who are bad eggs, sorry, but we will be squaring off,” he said.
“Help us, two months of my salary, I would give to anyone who can pinpoint how Alice Guo was able to leave the country with the help of our immigration officers,” he added.
Guo was arrested in Indonesia last September 4. During that time, a Senate panel was probing into her alleged links to a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) in Bamban.
Guo has maintained several times that she is not involved in the Bamban Pogo, but the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) itself accused Guo of having business interests in Baofu Land Development Inc.
Baofu owns the land leased to Zun Yuan, the Pogo operator in Bamban. The same Pogo was raided for human trafficking violations.
According to DILG, Baofu — as represented by Guo who was president of the company — purchased eight parcels of land in Bamban last February 2019.
Guo claims to have divested ownership of Baofu when she ran for mayor, but DILG believes the amount she divested it for — P2.5 million — was “grossly incongruent to her investment on Baufo which is approximately eight hectares of land”.
This issue became the basis of cases against Guo, for which she was placed on preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Eventually, the Ombudsman decided to dismiss Guo for guilty of grave misconduct, which merited “dismissal from service with forfeiture of all her retirement benefits and perpetual disqualification to re-enter government service.”