September 9, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo allegedly used a lookalike to evade authorities, according to National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents who questioned her in Indonesia before her return to the Philippines.
NBI operatives interrogated Guo on Sept. 5 while waiting for clearance from Indonesia’s immigration authorities.
She was questioned about a notarized document, her reported use of a doppelgänger and an NBI clearance issued in her name.
NBI assistant director for investigation service Lito Magno then showed Guo a photo of a woman resembling her and asked if it was her.
Guo denied being the person in the photo, claiming it was a member of her staff, whom she jokingly referred to as a “slimmer version” of herself.
According to an NBI source, Guo may have used doppelgängers (lookalikes) as decoys to mislead operatives from the Bureau of Immigration, NBI and the Philippine National Police. This tactic reportedly helped her evade detection during ongoing investigations.
The NBI Dactyloscopy Unit in June confirmed that fingerprints from an NBI clearance under the name “Alice Guo” matched those of a “Guo Hua Ping,” leading the agency to conclude that the former mayor and Guo Hua Ping are the same person.
Guo was arrested in Tangerang, Indonesia, by local police on Sept. 4 and officially turned over to Philippine authorities the next day.
She returned to the Philippines on Sept. 6 and is now in the custody of the PNP at Camp Crame in Quezon City.
Guo faces multiple legal charges, including alleged involvement in the raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub in Bamban, money laundering, tax evasion and material misrepresentation in her mayoral candidacy papers.
She also has an outstanding arrest order from the Senate for repeatedly skipping hearings related to the POGO raid.
With Guo’s arrest, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) yesterday said it is hopeful that the investigations and hearings being conducted by both the Senate and House of Representatives would reveal how she was able to leave the country.
In a statement, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco hoped that Guo’s presence at the hearings would “shed light on many issues regarding her departure.”
Tansingco added that “the upcoming hearings and investigations on Guo will likely reveal more about the manner in which the former mayor left the country illegally.”
At the BI, Guo faces deportation charges for undesirability and misrepresentation.
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