Guo family fled on a boat

Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, along with her siblings Shiela and Wesley, reportedly escaped through the country’s backdoor.

Shiela Guo revealed this on Tuesday during the joint Senate hearing of the Committees on Justice and Human Rights; Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality; and Public Services investigating her family’s escape from the Philippines.

Shiela, who was apprehended in Indonesia last week with Cassandra Li Ong, another Chinese woman linked to a POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga, narrated how they fled. She said they left the country on boats but she could not recall exactly where they departed from.

“We boarded a boat,” she told the senators.

Guo and Ong were arrested in Indonesia on 21 August after they attempted to return to Singapore. They were brought back to the Philippines on 22 August.

Guo said she, Alice and Wesley were transported from their Tarlac farm to an unknown port in a van and they then boarded a small white boat before transferring to a larger vessel. They continued their journey to Malaysia on another boat.

She said the small boat could only accommodate five to 10 persons. “We rode in the boat around midnight and we were there until morning,” she said.

She said they boarded another boat to go to Malaysia.

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission reported that Shiela and her siblings were last sighted in a heavily guarded private resort in Zambales last month.

During the hearing, officials suggested the Guo family likely fled through the country’s backdoor, which usually referred to the southernmost point of Mindanao.

Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty proposed the possibility of a Luzon backdoor, while National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief Jaime Santiago speculated they might have used a route from Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, to Sabah, Malaysia.

“Our theory is that they used the backdoor and traveled for four to six hours by boat, speedboat, from Bongao to Sabah, because that is the closest route to Sabah,” Santiago told the senators.

Philippine Coast Guard Vice Admiral Rolando Punzalan Jr., deputy commandant for Operations, mentioned the backdoor in Zamboanga and Sulu but highlighted the challenge of securing the country’s porous coastline.

“The challenge really is the porous nature of our coastline. It is very open but, nonetheless, it is through the developments that I have mentioned that we are beefing up our capacity to cover as much as we can,” he told the senators.

Shiela’s testimony confirms BI theory

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco revealed that Shiela Guo’s account aligns with their theory of illegal departure.

“They allegedly evaded immigration inspections by first leaving on a small boat from a northern resort, then transferring to a larger boat, and finally switching back to a small boat to reach Sabah,” he explained.

Shiela Guo faces deportation for undesirability and misrepresentation after it was discovered she held a valid Chinese passport under the name Zhang Mier.

Tansingco noted that deportation will occur only after resolving all pending criminal cases and fulfilling other obligations in the country.

He also indicated that Alice and Wesley Guo might face similar charges.

“We are coordinating closely with Indonesian authorities to track Alice Guo’s movements,” Tansingco said. “While this development is promising, her return to the Philippines is crucial for ensuring justice.”

With Anthony Ching