NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews) – Alice Guo, with no record of birth, schooling, residence and memory of childhood who appeared in Bamban, Tarlac out of the blue and became mayor in 2022, could be a Chinese deep penetration agent. Her case is just like the influx of migrant Japanese workers who arrived in the Philippines prior to their invasion in WWII.
She may hold the record as the first Chinese national to become a chief local executive in a foreign country.
Guo is apparently a fruit of the Duterte administration’s open door policy to Chinese nationals.
Under the watch of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, Chinese nationals freely enter the country sans any documentation. They secure their visa only upon arrival at the port of entry. Thousands reportedly availed of the privilege, the heavy concentration of which has been in Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon officially as students but in reality could be spies or military personnel, surmised Philippine intelligence.
It was also the time the Duterte administration nonchalantly granted permits for the establishment of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs) in such strategically located places – in Clark, Tarlac and in the Island Cove of Kawit, Cavite, compromising, thus, the country’s national security in the light of the mounting tension in the West Philippines Sea.
The POGO hubs in Cavite and Tarlac were noted for employing Chinese migrant workers, raising security concerns due to its proximity to the Danilo Atienza Air Base and Clark Air Base, respectively. Intelligence analysts suspected that the POGO hubs serve as Chinese listening posts or surveillance facilities.
Moreover, POGO workers do not only gamble but are here, accordingly, to launder drug money, traffic women, run prostitution dens, and engage in other illicit activities. And these criminals even settled their dispute by murdering each other right here in our front yard.
Recently, some 165 Chinese who allegedly worked illegally at a Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO) hub in Bamban, Tarlac were deported.
The deported foreigners were workers of the Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, which was raided by authorities two months ago. Accordingly, the gaming hub is also in a scamming operation and is responsible for hacking government websites.
The Senate investigation revealed that Guo is involved in POGOs, specifically in Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc. and Zun Yuan Technology Inc. that were raided on March 13 over charges of human trafficking and serious illegal detention.
She surfaced, too, as the incorporator and majority owner of the Baufo compound, the complex that houses the above POGO hub.
The controversial mayor of Bamban signifies that the Chinese invasion of the country has already gone deeper inside and far beyond the West Philippines Sea.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)
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