The country’s political drama is akin to a circus play; will this scheme be the ace pawn to a foreign mole in disguise?
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), along with other law enforcement agencies, raided a huge Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) compound in Bamban, Tarlac province early March 2024, where eight foreign nationals and one Filipino were arrested and faced multiple charges over the POGO raid, leaving clueless cues to lawmakers regarding who’s behind the POGO hub operations in the province.
On March 25, 2024, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian pressed the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to probe the local town chief for possible ties with the raided POGO hub in the province. By the Sangguniang Bayan Resolution, the name of Mayor Alice Guo was brought up and presumably applied for an operation license to a Chinese POGO company. Then, the DILG created a task force to look for Mayor Guo’s possible connection to the illegal POGO activities in her town.
As the probe reached the Senate grounds, Senators grilled Mayor Alice Guo for alleged connections to illegal POGO activities. Later on, in the Senate hearings, Senators also questioned Mayor Guo's nationality as she insisted that she grew up and was homeschooled on her father's farm. However, as the proceedings went by, lawmakers revealed documents that Mayor Guo entered the country in 2003 and attended a Christian school. Speculations emerged that she is a mole planted by the Chinese government in the country.
This issue reasserts the political circus drama that has plagued the country for years, sealing potent opportunities for greedy officials to manipulate the public with their deceitful techniques.
In connection with this, the Office of the Ombudsman suspended Mayor Guo and two others for up to six months from service, after the DILG filed graft charges over the illegal POGO operations in Bamban, Tarlac. Hence, the Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of Mayor Guo for grave misconduct over her “willful attempt to violate the law” as a public official who allegedly owned a huge property behind the Municipal Hall that housed the illegal POGO operations in her town.
In a good light, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) officially banned POGO operations whenever they were legal across the country, cementing the series of human trafficking violations that have been linked to POGO operations across the country. The Department of Finance (DOF) and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PagCor) disclosed that the POGO industry is worth about 200 billion pesos.
Meanwhile, ousted Bamban chief Alice Guo has been ordered to be arrested after the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality put her in contempt of court after she ignored to attend to any senate inquiries due to "State of health". Yet, on August 19, 2024, in a senate privilege speech, Senator Risa Hontiveros revealed that ex-mayor Alice Guo had fled the country together with her siblings while she had an Immigration Look-out Bulletin Order (ILBO) using her Philippine passport last July 18, 2024.
Moreover, the Malacañan Palace, through Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, tasked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to immediately revoke the passports of dismissed mayor Alice Guo and her relatives. Also, DFA has already reported the passports of Guo and her relatives to the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), preventing Guo and her family from further seeking shelter in other Southeast Asian neighboring countries.
Fortunately, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) confirmed that dismissed town chief Alice Guo was nabbed in a resort in Banten province, Indonesia by the Indonesian Police last September 3, 2024. This successful operation will be an instrument to divulge the tentacles that helped her to manage this puzzle-like escape plan.
Therefore, this milestone will be a helpful tool for lawmakers in uncovering the shades of individuals who orchestrated this strategic exit plan; a significant aid in preventing a mole's pawn from successfully penetrating the loopholes of this circus play.
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