Alice Guo, the fugitive former Philippine town mayor accused of being a Chinese spy and having links to organised crime groups, may have left the country in July, according to evidence presented by a lawmaker on Monday.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who led the Senate hearing committee that grilled Guo’s links to criminality involving Philippine offshore gambling operators (Pogos) as well as her citizenship, revealed information that Guo left the country last month and travelled to Kuala Lumpur.
As proof, Hontiveros presented the Senate with an immigration entry card that Guo supposedly used to enter Malaysia that showed she entered Kuala Lumpur past midnight on July 18.
The senator added that one of her sources had told her Guo had then travelled to Singapore where she met her father, as well as her suspected mother and brother, who reportedly flew in from China.
“Who allowed this travesty to happen? Who is responsible for this? Alice Guo would not have been able to leave if there was no government official helping her,” Hontiveros said, adding that the situation felt like they were being “cooked in their own grease.”
The revelation comes a week after Guo was dismissed from her position as mayor of Bamban, a town in Tarlac province, and barred from holding public office for life by the ombudsman, which investigates government officials accused of crime.
Guo’s lawyer Stephen David said they planned to appeal the dismissal after the ombudsman found the mayor guilty of “grave misconduct” for her ties to the gaming firm found in her hometown.
Yet the Department of Justice denied Hontiveros’ claim that Guo left the country, saying that they did not receive reports of any attempted departure from the Bureau of Immigration.
Guo had also reportedly filed a motion in her case before the Department of Justice on Friday, attaching a notarised counter affidavit dated August 14, Justice officials said.
Justice undersecretary Nicholas Ty added that law enforcement agencies reported sightings of Guo after July 18.
Yet senator and broadcaster Raffy Tulfo said that it was still possible that Guo boarded a private plane to flee the Philippines.
“Passengers who want to fly abroad in a chartered plane no longer have to go through the process and go through immigration. You just go straight through the gate with your limousine, SUV, and once you hit the tarmac, you just board your plane,” Tulfo said.
Guo came under fire after authorities in March raided an 80,000-square-metre Pogo facility in Bamban, the town in Tarlac province where she holds the office of mayor. During the raid, nearly 700 workers were rescued and evidence of criminal activities, such as scamming operations, was uncovered.
Authorities found a billing statement and a vehicle registered to Guo’s name during the raid and later discovered that the mayor partly owned the land on which the compound was built.
Previous investigations revealed that Guo owned the property that Hongsheng Gaming Technology – later renamed to Zun Yuan – was leasing and previously secured a no-objection letter from the Bamban municipal council in 2021, part of the requirements needed for the firm to establish operations.
The National Bureau of Investigation’s fingerprint test also found that her prints matched those of Guo Hua Ping, who entered the Philippines from China as a young teen with her family in 2003 on a special investor resident visa.
Doubts about Guo’s identity first surfaced after she admitted during a Senate hearing on May 7 that her birth certificate was only registered when she was 17 and she had no educational records, claiming that she was home-schooled.
In a social media post published on July 18 – the same date as her supposed departure from the Philippines – Guo explained that she had stopped attending the senate hearings due to “severe exhaustion and trauma”.
Hontiveros raised the possibility that law enforcement agencies in charge of apprehending Guo may need to be investigated.
“What if law enforcement [agencies] need to be investigated? What if they dropped the ball? The Bureau of Immigration promised us that they would not allow Guo Hua Ping to leave the country, but she’s already gone,” she said.
The lawmaker added, “If we do not find a solution to this, as an institution, as a country, it would be as if we allowed ourselves to be slapped in the face by this foreigner who has continuously debased our laws, policies, and processes.”
