The implications of Alice Guo's departure (Opinion MT)

[Lee]

Quote

 

ALICE Guo is not the first person to have managed to leave the country despite facing arrest warrants, and she definitely will not be the last.

What her departure has shown is that there seems to be different levels in how laws and procedures on travel are implemented in our country. While ordinary and law-abiding citizens face long queues in immigration, and have to sometimes endure inordinate scrutiny of their documents, with some of us even asked to produce graduation yearbooks, evidence of income and other proof of capacity to travel, people like Guo, who are facing criminal and administrative liabilities, and as evidence has shown may not even be a Filipino citizen, appear to have easily avoided, if not evaded, scrutiny by immigration officials.

The difference, perhaps, is that they are more influential, or that they have friends in powerful places.

Guo had an immigration lookout bulletin order (ILBO) issued against her after she became the subject of an intense investigation by several government agencies, and after the Senate cited her in contempt and ordered her arrest. An ILBO is issued by the head of the Department of Justice (DoJ) as a matter of precaution. It directs immigration officers to double-check if there are any pending arrest warrants against the subjects, or any violation or infraction, or to monitor their itineraries and whereabouts should they leave the country.

Unfortunately, an ILBO is not enough to hold anyone and stop them from leaving the country. All it guarantees is that the Bureau of Immigration will flag their travel and will alert relevant agencies. As it now appears, Guo and two others were able to slip out of the country undetected by immigration officials.

While it is always fair to presume regularity among government officials in the performance of their duties, it is also hard to believe that Guo could have just easily outwit and outplay our immigration desks without being detected. It is not farfetched for many to suspect that she and her companions could have possibly escaped scrutiny only because powerful hands helped them and made the escape happen.

It is easy to imagine Guo having powerful friends in strategically located places. Guo is a walking, ticking time bomb of secrets that may be career-damaging not only to politicians but to other public officials and even private personalities. Thus, there are plenty of reasons why there would be an intense motivation for many to make her disappear physically beyond the reach of our laws.

It is actually mind-boggling how only a lookout order was issued against Guo and not a hold departure order (HDO), which has more teeth than an ILBO. Issued by the justice secretary and the regional trial courts, an HDO prohibits individuals from leaving the country. There are several conditions that warrant its issuance, which include when a person is facing criminal charges, is a suspect in a criminal investigation or is considered a flight risk. The HDO prevents individuals from potentially evading prosecution or fleeing the country in order to avoid facing legal consequences. All these conditions practically apply to Guo.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros has called for the cancellation of the passport of Guo, a call which Malacañang, through Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, presumably acting on behalf of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., has heeded when it ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the DoJ to do so.

There are three grounds for cancelling a passport, pursuant to the Passport Act. These include when the holder is a fugitive from justice; has been convicted of a criminal offense; or the passport was acquired fraudulently or tampered with.

Unfortunately, the DoJ and the DFA appeared to have hit a brick wall in implementing the order. While it is possible to cancel Guo's passport based on at least two of the three grounds cited above, there is also a compelling need to bring Guo back to the Philippines. Her presence would be crucial in investigations not only in relation to the Philippine Overseas Gambling Operators (POGOs), and the angle of possible penetration of our country by Chinese spies but also on the corruption that exists in the government bureaucracy in relation to the procurement and issuance of birth and citizenship documents.

If our government cancels Guo's passport, there would be a conundrum since it would mean that we have to issue her travel papers to enable her to return to the Philippines. This would then be automatically admitting that she is, in fact, a Filipino citizen, which is one of the bones of contention that is at the core of the misrepresentation case being filed against her by the Commission on Elections. To issue Guo travel papers to enable her to travel back to the Philippines in the absence of a passport would therefore undermine and weaken the cases against her involving her alleged faking of her citizenship papers.

If we insist that Guo is not a Filipino citizen, and we cancel her passport for being bogus and fraudulent, she will become a noncitizen, and we will not have jurisdiction over her. On the other hand, if we issue her travel papers, or even ask Indonesia to extradite her, then it means that we recognize that she is a Filipino.

It looks like Guo has checkmated us, a move that can only be made possible if she was provided some expert legal advice on how to run around our laws and take advantage of their loopholes. The DoJ has assured us that it will study the situation closely and will proceed accordingly in accordance with our laws.

But with or without Guo, the investigation on the illegal POGO operations and the loopholes in our laws that make it possible for non-Filipino citizens to obtain fake citizenship papers must now include an investigation on how people like Guo can leave the country. President Marcos has ordered the investigation, and has vowed that heads will roll, as they should. We cannot countenance a system where criminal personalities, whether Filipino or not, are allowed to take advantage of our legal loopholes with help from corrupt officials and their accomplices.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2024/08/31/opinion/columns/the-implications-of-alice-guos-departure/1968007

 

 

[OnMyWay]

5 hours ago, Lee said:

Unfortunately, an ILBO is not enough to hold anyone and stop them from leaving the country. All it guarantees is that the Bureau of Immigration will flag their travel and will alert relevant agencies. As it now appears, Guo and two others were able to slip out of the country undetected by immigration officials.

Typical sloppy reporting.  This article seems to be oblivious to the fact that the sister testified before the senate that they left "on a small white" boat".  Most likely to avoid immigration.  That does not mean corruption was not involved, but if true, the "different treatment for different people" argument does not apply.

[scott h]

19 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Most likely to avoid immigration

Lets face it, in this country it is all about..........

 

[Jack Peterson]

8 minutes ago, scott h said:

Lets face it, in this country it is all about..........

 

 Tell me a country that is so Different

[Possum]

50 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Typical sloppy reporting.  This article seems to be oblivious to the fact that the sister testified before the senate that they left "on a small white" boat".  Most likely to avoid immigration. 

On a small white boat to get on a bigger boat which used be my plan.

[craftbeerlover]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

Typical sloppy reporting.  This article seems to be oblivious to the fact that the sister testified before the senate that they left "on a small white" boat".  Most likely to avoid immigration.  That does not mean corruption was not involved, but if true, the "different treatment for different people" argument does not apply.

I doubt very very much they took a few fishing boats from central Luzon to Malaysia.   That story sounded like more BS, on top of an already huge pile of BS.

[fillipino_wannabe]

Should of cancelled her passport and got immigration to detain her when they got the fingerprint match and found out she'd corrupted the NBI clearance.

Good entertainment though, I watched about 10 hours of the congress live stream with Cassie the other day.

Edited September 1 by fillipino_wannabe

[craftbeerlover]

47 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

 Tell me a country that is so Different

To the degree it is here, I would say many many many countries are very different.

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, craftbeerlover said:

To the degree it is here, I would say many many many countries are very different.

 Sorry but I doubt that, only today we see your country has a problem with SSS numbers going missing/Stolen and scams that may follow,  the whole kin world is full of Scams of some sort and most are based on bad government procedures   the UK had a very similar problem last year and that was on Military issues concerning Salaries and Pensions

[OnMyWay]

39 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

I doubt very very much they took a few fishing boats from central Luzon to Malaysia.   That story sounded like more BS, on top of an already huge pile of BS.

Could be.......

1 hour ago, Possum said:

On a small white boat to get on a bigger boat which used be my plan.

Maybe the bigger boat was a Chinese Coast Guard ship!  Plenty of those around.