The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Friday that dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo may have used a private aircraft to leave the country when she traveled to Malaysia on 18 July.
BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said the agency believes Guo did not leave the country from a major international airport or seaport.
“Based on our analysis, it appears Guo may have used a private aircraft to exit the country unlawfully without the knowledge of the authorities,” Sandoval said. This contradicted Guo’s claim that she departed by boat.
Sandoval said that ground handlers oversee private aircraft and notify the necessary government agencies before takeoff.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said those who helped Guo escape the country could face criminal and administrative charges.
“We’re looking into that because it’s been established that she arrived via a commercial flight (Batik Airways flight OD177) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport,” Viado said. “So we’ve narrowed down the possibilities.”
Viado said the BI was communicating with Malaysian authorities to obtain the manifests for all flights that arrived in Kuala Lumpur during the period and to verify the travel records gathered by the Philippine government.
Guo has been accused of being a Chinese spy and a protector of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub before her dismissal as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
Investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation showed Alice Guo and a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping had the same fingerprints.
At the resumption of the Senate hearing on POGOs last Tuesday, a Chinese national in a video interview said Guo’s campaign for Bamban mayor in 2022 was funded by the Chinese government.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, chair of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, presented a recorded interview of Wang Fugui, a former cellmate of She Zhijiang, an admitted Chinese spy who had disclosed details of Chinese espionage in the Philippines in an Al Jazeera interview.
Wang corroborated She’s claim that Guo was in his dossier. “Her campaign itself was arranged by Chinese state security,” Wang said, referring to the Ministry of State Security of China, the principal intelligence and security agency of the country.
According to Wang, when he was in prison in Thailand with She, the latter entrusted to him some of his declassified files. He said the files contained detailed information on Guo showing her link to Chinese intelligence.
He described Guo as an MSS agent, asserting, “Guo Hua Ping was a spy, but not a special one.”
Wang also identified Ma Dongli, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, as the handler of both Guo and She.
Ma, who reportedly holds a dual identity as an American citizen, had traveled to the Philippines numerous times and was linked to the Yatai Myanmar Company, known for operating a POGO hub implicated in human trafficking and scams.
Hontiveros said this hub was involved in the forced labor of Filipinos in Myanmar, where they were coerced into participating in cryptocurrency scams.
The Bureau of Immigration confirmed that Ma last traveled to the Philippines in June 2018.
During the hearing, Guo firmly denied any involvement in espionage, insisting, “I do not know [Ma]. I don’t have a handler. I am not a spy.”