The world for dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo has just gotten smaller and she will be caught soon as shown by the recent arrest in Indonesia of her sister and business partner.

Thus, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla suggested that she immediately surrender to join her sister Sheila Guo and associate Cassandra Li Ong in facing the charges against them.

Alice Guo is also the subject of an arrest warrant for failing to appear at a Senate hearing. She also faces a criminal complaint for qualified human trafficking.

The Department of Justice (DoJ), Bureau of Immigration, and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) plan to file deportation and misrepresentation charges against Alice Guo and her sister for “pretending to be Filipino citizens when, in fact, they are Chinese nationals.”

Sheila Guo at the time of her arrest was carrying a Chinese passport valid until 2031.

BI, NBI hailed

Remulla commended the BI and NBI for their intelligence gathering and sharing that led to the arrest of Sheila Guo and Ong in Indonesia.

“This victory demonstrates the essential role of enhanced cooperation between government forces in ensuring that justice is served and peace is safeguarded at all times,” Remulla said.

The DoJ chief noted the arrest of the two was a testament to the value of strong collaboration and close partnership among government agencies.

“If we hold moneyed and entitled people to proper account, we can’t be far from achieving justice for all,” he added.

Escape to Golden Triangle

Meanwhile, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) believes Alice Guo would try to sneak into the “Golden Triangle,” a crime-infested region in Southeast Asia to evade authorities, and not to China where she will likely be arrested.

PAOCC spokesperson Winston Casio said they think Guo is headed to the Golden Triangle because her family has business ties near the area.

The Golden Triangle is a region that includes parts of Burma, Thailand and Laos and is a known major drug trafficking hub.

China not an option

Casio, in a news forum, cited China’s strict laws against illegal gambling.

“She will not go to China in as much as she is already a person of interest accused of a serious crime in the Philippines in relation to illegal gambling,” Casio said.

“[We] know how strict China is in relation to gambling in their territory. So she would not be heading to any of those territories,” he said.

“The Golden Triangle countries are very porous and we know what it entails when we talk about transnational organized crime,” Casio said.

The zone has long been notorious for a wide variety of criminal activities, including illegal drug production, online fraud operations, massive gambling, and human trafficking.

“What is the feasible territory that she would head to? As far as the PAOCC is concerned, we’re confident she’s trying to get into the Golden Triangle because the Guo family has gambling interests in Cambodia,” Casio said. “That would be our safest bet at the moment.”

Casio said criminals would likely not go to countries with extradition treaties with the Philippines.

“I will not go to territories that are party to the United Nations or signatories to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Crime. I will never go to those places because I will be caught easily,” he said.

Aided their escape

Casio said the illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hubs in both Bamban, Tarlac, and Porac, Pampanga “involve a transnational criminal organization.”

“The persons who facilitated the escape of the Guo siblings and Ong to Batam (Indonesia) are two international criminals as well — Zhang Jie, a Singaporean national, and Warren Wu, an individual of Chinese descent who now holds a passport from Saint Kitts,” he said.

“So they have interests all over. If you go back to the biggest money laundering case in Singapore involving Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying, two of the partners of Alice Leal Guo, they were released. Zhang was released to Cambodia, repatriated,” Casio said.

“Lin, on the other hand, was repatriated on her request to Japan. So that’s how big their network is. This is not a run-of-the-mill criminal organization,” he added.

Casio also cautioned against the plan to cancel the Philippine passport of the former mayor and deport her sister to China. He said the goal should be to hold Guo and her cohorts accountable on Philippine soil.

Not a wise move

After discovering that Alice Guo had fled the country, Senator Risa Hontiveros and the Office of the President called on the DoJ and the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel her passport.

But Casio explained that doing so may place Guo under the protection of the United Nations.

He said a Chinese national who acquires another citizenship would find it difficult to reacquire Chinese citizenship.

“Then what would happen to Shiela, Alice, Wesley, et al.? They would become stateless individuals. I’d hate it if they would become refugees and they would fall under the framework of the United Nations Commission for Refugees,” Casio said. Wesley is supposedly Alice and Sheila’s sibling.

While canceling their passports would help limit their travels, Casio said it would be better to let them keep these in the meantime.

“It would be a bigger problem if they became stateless. Let them remain as Filipinos first, then hold them accountable,” he said.

“When they are detained, that is the time to cancel the passports. Then, let’s deal with where we’re going to send them by the time their sentences are over.”