DISMISSED Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo yesterday said she will not seek reelection in next year’s midterm polls.
Guo, also known by her Chinese name Guo Hua Ping, made the remark after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ordered the filing of an election offense case against her over her alleged material misrepresentation in her Certificate of Candidacy in the May 2022 polls.
In its 12-page Minute Resolution No. 24-0761, the Comelec en banc adopted the recommendation of its Law Department for the filing of criminal raps against Guo before the appropriate court.
Guo, during the resumption of the Senate Committee on Women hearing on the ills of the POGO industry, said she will first clear her name before returning to politics.
“Haharapin ko na muna po ‘yung mga accusations sa akin. Lilinisin ko muna po ang sarili ko para maging fair naman sa mga constituents ko (I will first face the accusation against me. I will clear my name to be fair to my constituents),” Guo said.
Gou’s legal counsel, Stephen David, earlier said her client will seek reelection.
Senators have earlier said that it would be a mockery of the Philippine system if Guo is still allowed to run for public office since evidence shows that she is not a Filipino citizen.
COMELEC DECISION
“The Commission resolved, as it hereby resolves, to adopt the recommendation of the Law Department to the filing of information against Respondent Alice Leal Guo/Hua Ping before the proper Regional Trial Court for violation of Section 74 in relation to Section 262 of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC),” said the Comelec.
In its recommendation, the Law Department said there is clear evidence that Guo is not a Filipino.
“It is clear from the evidence presented by Complainant that there is sufficient ground to believe that Respondent committed material misrepresentation in violation of Section 74 of the OEC in relation to Section 262 of the same Code when she declared in her COC that she is a Filipino citizen and is a resident of Bamban, Tarlac, when in truth and in fact, she is not,” said Comelec.
The Law Department said Guo made false representations pertaining to her qualifications for elective office, specifically her lack of citizenship and her failure to meet the residency requirement.
In her COC in 2022, Guo declared her name as Alice Leal Guo; citizenship as Filipino; birthplace in Tarlac, Tarlac; birthday on July 12, 1986; and has been residing in the Philippines for 35 years and 2 months and in Bamban, Tarlac for 18 years and two months a day before Election Day.
But her NBI Alien Fingerprint Card showed her name as Hua Ping Lin Guo; citizenship as Chinese; birthplace in Fuiian, China; birthday on August 31, 1990; and a resident of Fujian, China as of March 2006.
“Based on the evidence presented, including the dactyloscopy report from the NBI revealing matching fingerprint patterns, as well as the ERSD’s signature examination report and dactyloscopic report, there are significant similarities in the signature and fingerprint specimen of the Respondent and Hua Ping Lin Guo. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that Respondent and Hua Ping Lin Guo are likely one and the same individuals,” said the Comelec.
An election offense case carries the penalty of one to six years imprisonment and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.
A CHINESE SPY
A confessed Chinese criminal claimed that Guo is a Chinese spy “but not a special one” whose mayoralty run in 2022 was “arranged” by China’s Ministry of State Security.
In a recorded Zoom interview shown by the office of Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday, Wang Fu Gui, who claimed he was a cellmate of She Zhijiang in a Thai jail, said he learned this after She “entrusted me to handle some of his declassified file matters” after his release from prison.
She was arrested in Thailand in August 2022 for various crimes in China, including human trafficking, extortion, and cybercrimes. He was the chairman of Yatai International Holdings Group which has gambling investments throughout Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Myanmar, and the Philippines.
He granted Al Jazeera an exclusive interview that was shown on international TV, where he claimed he was a Chinese spy and Guo was one of them.
Wang said he shared the same cell with She for one-and-a-half years and established a close friendship.
“I was his cellmate; we were good friends who trusted each other and lived in prison for 1.5 years. After my release, he entrusted me to handle some of his declassified file matters,” Wang said in Chinese which was translated to English.
“In fact, the content of the declassified file kept by Mr. She is large and I only have declassified a portion under his authorization,” Wang said.
“Guo Hua Ping was a spy but not a special one. It just so happens there is a copy of her state security background there. And her situation with Mr. She has a lot of similarities. That’s all I can say because I’m not Mr. She himself and according to my agreement with him, I can only reveal so much. Sorry,” he added.
Wang said She admitted that “field agents” recruited by the State Security will have a detailed background information investigation and will be later assigned “special hacking teams and hometown associations and chambers of commerce in charge of overseas information collection, including the secrets and weaknesses of some people that will be held in the background information” which will be the “main method of controlling the field agents.”
“For example, Guo Hua Ping’s fake Filipino identity is such a secret and weakness that she can only listen to State Security. Mr. She’s experience is similar,” he said.
Wang said the “overseas special agents” recruited by China’s State Security included spies who collect intelligence and do other work for the political and economic interests of the Chinese government, such as officials and businessmen in some countries.
He said he has no knowledge as to what information Guo may have gotten from the Philippines which she supposedly sent to China and who else among her relatives is involved in alleged spying activities.
Wang said the POGO industry and scamming have a “correlation” with spying operations.
“It has a lot to do with the Chinese government’s exuberant intelligence. There’s also the fact all of this is totally connected to the Belt and Road (project) which is also just part of a huge united front and intelligence strategic plan for the whole world, including foreign colonization tactics,” he said.
When asked if there are other spies in the Philippines other than Chinese citizens, Wang said: “There are people from all countries and they are not all Chinese. That’s all I can answer, sorry.”
Wang said Ma Dong Li, a member of the Communist Party of China, is the “security contact” of She and could also be the handler of She and Guo.
He described Ma as a second generation of the “Reds” who has an “American identity” and a vice president of the Thai-Chinese Association.
“He (Ma) is the third highest ranking member of the Yatai International Holdings Group before She “was illegally entrapped.”
“There is a high probability that he is also Guo Hua Ping’s handler and that Mr. She Zhijiang’s contact with Guo Hua Ping is through Ma Dong Li,” he added.
Wang said Guo ran as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac during the 2022 elections through the help of the State Security.
“Her campaign itself was arranged by Chinese state security,” he added.
Wang said since he was released from prison, he has not been able to communicate with She, saying the latter is “now reported to have been severely suppressed by the Chinese government for his revelation of the espionage case involving Ms. Guo Hua Ping and due to the sensitivity of the matter. Mr. She Zhijiang has been placed under strict surveillance in Thai prisons and his contact with the outside world has been restricted.”
He said She is willing to cooperate with the Philippine government in whatever investigation it is doing in connection with his revelations.
Guo denied anew that she knows She and that she is a spy.
“Hindi ko rin po kilala si Ma Dong Li. Wala akong handler, hindi ako spy. Wala ring nag-recruit sa akin mag-trabaho para sa ibang bansa (I don’t know Ma Dong Li. I don’t have a handler, I am not a spy. Nobody has recruited me to work for any other country),” she said.
“Maybe they have other motives, I do not know then and I don’t know their plans. We will file charges against Al Jazeera,” Guo said.
Hontiveros said her office wanted to extract more information from She but their request to talk to him was turned down by the Philippine Embassy in Thailand “for diplomatic reasons.”
Hontiveros said she instructed her staff members to find other resource persons privy to what She revealed that Guo was a spy until they were able to make a connection with Wang.
IMMIGRATION ‘THEORY’
Bureau of Immigration officer-in-charge Joel Anthony Viado said the agency’s “initial theory is that Guo and her siblings entered Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 18, 2024 at 12:17 p.m. based on validation with their counterparts in Malaysia.”
Viado, however, said they are still validating how Guo was able to get or ride a plane going to Kuala Lumpur.
He said the “second phase” of their report is still incomplete.
“They could have used a private airstrip. That is also included in the report. This is still a pending investigation; we have to do validation on our own but through our validation it was confirmed that Guo entered Kuala Lumpur on July 18. What we are doing is we are requesting the airlines a copy of their manifests,” Viado said.
He said based on BI records, Ma Dong Li first arrived in the country in May 1995 and left in June 2018.
Senators said Ma could have been going in and out of the country using different identities. — With Gerard Naval