By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS were on alert amid a Philippine hunt for a dismissed mayor accused of coddling illegal offshore gambling operations in the country, a senator said on Monday. Senator Sherwin T.
Gatchalian said he had talked with ambassadors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and was informed that their authorities were on alert for dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo. “She will be nabbed in Indonesia,” the senator told reporters in Filipino. Ms.
Guo fled the country and was believed to be hiding in Indonesia. He said law enforcers in Indonesia were on alert so it would be difficult for her to leave. “It will be difficult for her to move now.
” Ms. Guo has been accused of coddling an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) in Bamban, Tarlac, where she ran and won for the first time as mayor in 2022. The POGO has been linked to human trafficking and scams.
She’s facing an arrest warrant from the Senate for snubbing its hearings on her alleged POGO ties. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on Saturday said Ms. Guo was likely headed for mainland Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle, which spans the borders of Mekong River countries Laos, Thailand and Myanmar and is known for its weak law enforcement.
The triangle is widely known as a hub for organized crime, human trafficking and illicit trade. The PAOCC said two of Ms. Guo’s companions — her sister Sheila and Cassandra Li Ong, the authorized representative of a POGO hub in Pampanga that was raided in June — were arrested in Indonesia last week and arrived in the Philippines on Aug.
22. Sheila was turned over to the Senate on Monday, while Ms. Ong was in the custody of the House of Representatives.
The two chambers are holding separate investigations of POGOs. Ms. Guo’s escape was first revealed by Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros-Baraquel, citing immigration documents, at a hearing last week.
The PAOCC earlier said Ms. Guo, who has been identified by authorities as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on July 18 from Denpasar, Indonesia via Batik Air 177. She arrived in Singapore from Kuala Lumpur via Jetstar Asia 686 on July 21, PAOCC spokesman Winston John R.
Casio said in a Viber message. She reached Batham, Indonesia on Aug. 18 from Singapore via ferry boat, he added, citing “our foreign counterparts’ immigration records.
” The Bureau of Immigration on Aug. 21 said Ms. Guo was still in Indonesia, almost a month after her departure from the Philippines.
Mr. Gatchalian earlier said it would be impossible for Ms. Guo to escape the country since one “can’t just walk into an airport undetected” nor can leave Philippine airports undocumented.
One has to pass through immigration and countless CCTVs, he added in a statement, noting that there should be traces of movement inside the airport all the way to her boarding the plane. The Philippines and Indonesia have extradition treaties. They are also member-states of Interpol, along with Singapore and Malaysia.
Ms. Guo was also accused of spying for China, amid questions on her nationality and identity that all unfolded at Senate hearings. She has denied the allegations, maintaining that she’s a natural-born Filipino citizen.
The government has frozen her accounts over money laundering, tax fraud and human trafficking charges. Her assets covered by a freeze order issued by the Anti-Money Laundering Council and affirmed by the Court of Appeals included 90 bank accounts that were registered with 14 financial institutions and that were under her name and her business partners, luxury vehicles and one helicopter, and a dozen real estate properties. POGOs, which mainly cater to Chinese markets, have been a major headache for the government, so much so that Mr.
Marcos ordered their ban in July. Congress under his predecessor Rodrigo R. Duterte passed a law taxing POGOs to legalize them, despite concerns about their social costs.
Chinese President Xi Jinping had asked him to ban them. Mr. Marcos said in his third address to Congress in July that POGOs have been disguising themselves as legitimate entities, but their operations have ventured into illicit areas, linking them to financial scams, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture and “even murder.
”.
