THE Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission yesterday said that dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo and her siblings escaped from the country last year using the southern backdoor heading to Indonesia and then flying to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio told the Senate sub-committee on justice and human rights hearing that this was the information they received from “our Malaysian counterparts” as the upper chamber subcommittee continued its investigation on how Guo escaped in July last year.
“We could only refer back to the information that we received from our Malaysian counterparts, specifically saying that, let me read their message to us in toto: ‘She took flight from Denpasar, Bali via Malindo Air (flight) OD-177 to Kuala Lumpur on 18-07-2024 (July 18, 2024) at 1217 (12:17 am) hours. That is the information that they relayed to us yesterday (Monday),” Casio said.
He said the information came from the Malaysian Police attache based in Manila.
Casio said they still have no information on how Guo and her siblings reached Denpasar.
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) deputy director general Ashley Acedillo said the agency has come up with two possible scenarios on how Guo escaped.
He said the “potential escape routes” of Guo were gathered by NICA through its National Intelligence Committee in coordination with the Bureau of Immigration, National Bureau of Investigation, PAOCC, the PNP, the armed forces, and their foreign liaison offices abroad.
The first one, he said, was Guo traveled by land from Tarlac to Batangas Port and then went to Coron Port in Palawan by sea and then by air to “any airport in the southern part of Palawan.”
Acedillo said Palawan has seven airstrips – Apurawan, Bato, Brooks Point, Bugsuk, Busuanga Bay Lodge Seaplane Terminal, and Cagayansillo Airport – and any of them could have been used by Guo and her siblings to travel to Tawi-tawi.
From there, he said Guo travelled by sea to Kudat, Malaysia and travelled by land to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia where they boarded a flight to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“In Kota Kinabalu, there is a so-called counter-setting scheme where foreigners are allowed to enter the country without proper inspection by being directed to a designated counter,” Acedillo said.
He said the second scenario was Guo travelled from Tarlac to Batangas Port and took a plane to Balabac, Palawan, then took a sea vessel to Tawi-Tawi, and took another ride by sea to Lahad Datu or Semporna, both of which are in Malaysia and travelled by air to Kuala Lumpur before heading by air to Singapore.
Acedillo said the most likely scenario was the second one.
He said the agency cannot determine the actual escape route of Guo and her siblings since there were no witnesses “that could corroborate a definitive timeline of Guo’s escape.”
He said another factor for Guo’s undetected escape was due to the “influence” of criminal syndicates in the country and Malaysia “leveraging on corruption and intimidation to protect Guo.”
“And third, information silos preventing better information sharing that could have proven crucial to a more coherent assessment and consequently a more coordinated response to the incident,” Acedillo said.
“The escape of Guo could have been facilitated by a widely dispersed syndicate operating both domestically and abroad. These operations possibly involved a combination of bribery, corruption, forged documents, and covert networks,” he added.
He said the escape route taken by Guo via Palawan and Tawi-Tawi “could be consistent with non-smuggling and illegal migration pathways” which indicates that her escape was made possible by “existing networks” which are familiar with “illicit maritime operations.”
“The failure to intercept Guo points to existing gaps in personnel and oversight mechanisms that are necessary for an archipelago with an exceptionally huge coastline such as the Philippines…Although NICA was not directly involved in the investigation into Guo’s escape. Intelligence and information are crucial,” he said.
“So, this is not final and conclusive,” he added.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said that all 12 BI terminal heads representing 14 ports “certified under oath that Alice Guo did not pass through any of their terminals in July 2024.”
Viado said requests were made from their foreign counterparts in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and none of them replied to their query.
He said the BI also sent request letters to neighboring embassies coursed through the Department of Foreign Affairs to gather possible information on Guo’s transit details but has yet to receive a response.
He said the BI communicated with a “contact” from the Malaysian Ministry of Home Defense to confirm Guo’s travel, in which they received a response which read: “Alice entered Malaysia by plane at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on 18 July 2024 at 1217 hours using Social Pass” which had already expired on August 18, 2024.
“Flight number OD-177, it is beyond our access to retrieve her boarding pass. Only the flight company can give you the copy of the said document. According to our system, there is no entry record to Sabah on 19 July 2024,” Viado said, quoting their Malaysian contact.
He said the BI also tried to communicate with Director General Zakaria Shaaban of Malaysian immigration, but the said agency effected a revamp which also included Shaaban.
“The former diplomat advised us that back channels would no longer work and that the SOJ (secretary of justice has to write to the DFA to contact Malaysia…The Malaysian Embassy proposed to schedule a courtesy visit with Hon. Azalina Othman Said, minister in the Prime Minister’s Department on January 24, 2025. (But) Due to unforeseen circumstances, the courtesy visit to Malaysia had to be cancelled,” Viado said.
Viado said that Guo “most likely left the country via a backdoor exit” using Tawi-Tawi and entered Sabah, Malaysia.
“As per IACAT (Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking) study on backdoor exits, traffickers have resorted to trafficking by sea via backdoor exits because of strengthened implementation of anti-trafficking policies at airports and seaports…Monitoring of private wharves/ports, where BI is not present, remains a challenge,” he said.
“Moreover, the IACAT study pointed out that locals of ZamBaSulTa (Zamboanga-Basilan, Sulu-Tawi-Tawi) area have been known to travel to Sabah without undergoing passport clearance since they have been doing this since time immemorial,” he added.
Guo was arrested by Indonesian authorities on September 4 last year. She fled the country at the height of the Senate investigations on the ills of the POGO industry.
Viado said former Palace spokesman Harry Roque could have used the same route that Guo used in leaving the country undetected as he was sighted in Tawi-Tawi on September 2, 2024 at around 9:30 a.m.
It was reported that Roque and his wife arrived in the United Arab Emirates on September 4 last year.
“Since Atty. Roque has no recorded departure in the BI’s record, he most likely took the same route as Alice Guo in leaving the country using a backdoor exit in Tawi-Tawi,” Viado said.
Viado admitted that it would be physically impossible for the bureau to monitor how an individual may have gotten out due to the country’s porous borders and the lack of personnel, adding they only have 156 intelligence agents/officers and 16 Fugitive Search Unit personnel.
He said there are 33 private airports or airstrips in Luzon without the presence of BI personnel, and 94 private seaports registered with the Philippine Ports Authority also without the presence of BI personnel. He added that six international ports of entry and exit are with the presence of BI personnel.
In the Visayas, he said there are five international ports of entry and exit with BI personnel, but 10 private airstrips and 42 private seaports registered with PPA are not manned by their personnel.
In Mindanao, he said three international ports of entry and exit are with BI personnel, and 33 private airports/airstrips and 66 private seaports are without the presence of BI personnel.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, sub-committee chairperson who presided over the hearing, said at least there is a glimpse of light as to how Guo escaped, but said that more is needed to be done to determine the dismissed mayor’s actual escape route.
“I am disappointed that we still have not resolved with finality how she (Guo) escaped,” she said.
LI DUAN WANG
At the start of the hearing, Hontiveros said he received information that Li Duan Wang, alias Mark Ong, whose Filipino citizenship application was recently approved by Congress and just awaiting President Marcos Jr.’s signature, is an incorporator of the biggest Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators service provider that was shut down in 2019 – the New Oriental Club 88 Corporation.
While the company was closed in 2019, Hontiveros said the company amended its articles of incorporation (AOI) in 2020 so it can operate as a Special Class BPO that will serve as a service provider for offshore online gaming.
She added the corporation was active as of last year.
Hontiveros is opposed to granting Filipino citizenship to Li.
“Buhay po itong kompanya ni Li Duan Wang as of last year. Nakita natin kanina yung incorporators na isa siya at noong August 2024 lang ay inamyendahan ulit ang kanilang AOI para pahabain ang corporate term at existence nila (The company of Li Duan Wang as of last year. You saw it a while ago [in her power point presentation] that he is one of the incorporators. In August 2024, they amended anew their AOI to extend its corporate term and existence),” she added.
Casio confirmed Hontiveros’ information, saying: “That basically established his link to POGOs.”
Hontiveros said she also had information that Li was present in a building in Pasay City that was raided Friday last week by the BI for alleged scam operations. Forty-nine foreigners were arrested in the operation.
Viado said Li was spotted in the building “but not the raided office” but the BI was not able to gather information on Li’s presence in the building.
“Hindi po namin na-establish ang any connection between him and the corporation that was raided (We were not able to establish any connection between him [Li] and the corporation that was raided),” Viado said.
Li’s naturalization was approved by the Senate early this year based on House Bill No. 8839 despite strong opposition from Hontiveros.
