By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Mayor Alice Guo might think she has been providing the senators with inconsequential answers to make the congressional investigation absurd, but the truth is her evasion has only allowed more information to spring forth about her true identity and the dark activities she is desperately trying to keep hidden.
Her responses and demeanor to basic questions — about her past, her education, family, and childhood — betray her innocent facade, raising suspicions that seem more credible than her ambiguous answers. Senator Risa Hontiveros was spot on that Mayor Guo seemed to have just emerged “out of nowhere,” feeding more to the fire of an unsettling possibility of her being a Chinese “asset” and threat to our national security.
Her lavish display of wealth also defies the modest income from her hog-raising business and other family business ventures. Speculations have also cropped up that Guo may well be part of a money-laundering organization with intricate operations that set up business fronts.
Let’s backtrack on the hearing and how Mayor Guo affords her opulent lifestyle, which includes more than a dozen vehicles, designer clothes, and even a helicopter. It’s evident that her wealth stems from sources beyond her declared business ventures, especially considering her pig farm’s significant losses during the pandemic.
Sen. Hontiveros had revealed that the mayor’s fellow incorporators of Baofu Land Development included individuals with ties to large-scale money-laundering operations: Chinese national Zhang Ruijin, convicted in Singapore’s largest money-laundering scam case involving US$2.2 billion, and Lin Baoying, a citizen of the Dominican Republic facing charges in the same case.
They are the very same people involved in the very property in Bamban, Tarlac, where a POGO-scam firm operated. Despite Mayor Guo’s assertions of no longer being associated with these ventures due to her shift to politics, her past ties to such individuals implicated in no less than a $2.2-billion money scam in Singapore strikes on her integrity. Are these illicit operations what drove her to run for mayor of a town where these illegal activities have thrived?
Her family origins were exposed by Youtube channel China Insider’s David Zhang last week, pointing out her father’s supposed connections in the Chinese Communist Party. Zhang said he was associated with individuals like Zhu Feng, a director of the Coordination Department linked to China’s spy agency; and Chen Congcong of the Maritime Association. These organizations, including the Philippine Chaotai Association, are part of the United Front, serving the interests of the CPP in many countries.
Add to this picture, Rep. Robert Ace Barbers’ revelation that Chinese nationals in the Philippines have acquired land near strategic military installations in Cagayan and you wonder if the Guos and their ties are how they do it.
So, Mayor Guo’s case serves as a cautionary tale, reminding us of the dangers posed by unchecked foreign influence and the imperative of safeguarding our nation’s sovereignty and integrity. However absurd her answers brush off on these hearings, the truth beyond Guo’s tale must still come out.
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