NBI tracking down ‘doppelganger’ of ex-Bamban mayor
Alice Guo’s mysterious benefactor, the influential individual who orchestrated her short-lived escape from Philippine justice, may be a Chinese national named Huang Zhiyang.
During Monday’s Senate hearing, Guo refused to name the one who facilitated her and her cohorts’ escape from the country last July, but was later convinced by Sen. Risa Hontiveros and other senators to simply write the name down on a piece of paper.
Members of the Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality withheld the name from the public in view of the witness’ fear of repriasal.
However, Senator Jinggoy Estrada let the name of the so-called “boss of all the bosses of POGO” slip after much coaxing by reporters.
“He is a foreigner, a Chinese national and allegedly, based from the reports that I have received, he fled the country and he is now in Taiwan,” the senator said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
When asked point blank by reporters if “Huang Zhiyang” is the name the disgraced ex-mayor secretly wrote down during Monday’s hearing, Estrada said, “most probably.”
Estrada initially said he would leave it up to panel chair Hontiveros to name Guo’s alleged boss but his reply to journalists is seen as confirmation enough.
Lawmakers and law enforcers alike remain baffled by the amount resources thrown into the dismissed mayor’s elaborate but, ultimately, failed escape attempt, as it even involved “Alice lookalikes.”
Both the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that said they were aware that selected staff members of Guo were deliberately styled to resemble her, in an apparent attempt to throw off investigators.
NBI Director Jimmy Santiago said in a television interview on Tuesday that it is possible that a Guo “doppelganger” might have been the individual seen by a notary public who is currently in hot water for procedural lapses in notarizing documents.
“Maybe it was her who was in the car when Atty. (Elmer) Galicia said that Alice Guo was in the car.,” Santiago said on ABS-CBN.
Galicia, Guo’s lawyer, testified that his client had her affidavit notarized on August 14.
However, it was later learned that Guo and her associates left the Philippines in July.
Santiago stated that they are looking for Guo’s doppelganger also known as Catherine or Cat Salazar to shed light on her role in the fugitive mayor’s escape.
“Right now, they’re looking for her to shed some light on his role in Alice’s escape. What’s her role with the notary? Let’s ask her.,” Santiago added.
Despite the conjectures of several officials, Hontiveros is still taking Guo’s words with a grain of salt, citing her penchant for misleading senators.
“Our Committee has not seen any reason to believe that Guo Hua Ping [Guo’s presumed real name] will provide us with factual, valuable, and reliable information to convince us to agree to an executive session,” the panel chair said in a statement on Tuesday.
“If she cannot even tell the truth about her identity, why should we believe everything else that comes out of her mouth? She should come clean during subsequent hearings, and maybe, we might believe what she has to say during an executive session,” Hontiveros wrote in a mixture of Filipino and English.
For his part, Senate President Francis Escudero rejected Guo’s assertion that no Filipino helped her flee the country sometime in July.
“I am of the belief that there were other personalities, possibly officials in government other than the Bureau of Immigration (BI), who helped her,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has given Guo another 10 days to file her counter-affidavit for alleged material misrepresentation in the 2022 elections but said it would entertain no further request for extension.
The Comelec’s law department partially granted the former mayor’s second motion to extend the deadline for filing a counter-affidavit, according to an order signed by Comelec Director Maria Norina Tangaro-Casingal.
The poll body issued a subpoena against Guo on August 13 for alleged material misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy in the 2022 elections.
“Respondent Alice Leal Guo / Hua Ping Lin Guo is hereby given ten (10) calendar days from 02 September 2024 or until 12 September2024 within which to file her Counter-Affidavit,” the decision stated.
As this developed, Guo’s escape companion Cassandra Li Ong now faces a qualified human trafficking complaint for her role in Lucky South 99, the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) raided in Porac, Pampanga.
On Tuesday, the PAOCC and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group jointly filed the complaint against Ong and 53 others before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The case stems from authorities’ discovery that many of the foreigners that were found at a POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga were not working there willingly.
“The foreign nationals that you saw earlier [during the press briefing] were kidnapped… abducted to work at Lucky South 99. Some were taken from casinos, some were trying to pay off debts… they were forced to work in online gaming. They were happy to be rescued,” Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) Prosectutor Ramoncito Ocampo told reporters.
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