Ex-mayor loses cool over Chinese spy documentary
MANILA, Philippines — The usually calm and collected Alice Guo seemed to have lost her cool at a House of Representatives’ quad committee hearing on Friday as she was confronted with allegations raised in a documentary by a self-confessed Chinese spy that she had worked for Beijing’s intelligence and security services.
Shown a portion of a documentary by foreign news outlet Al Jazeera featuring Chinese spy She Zhijiang, the dismissed mayor became visibly agitated and vehemently denied knowing She.
Asked if she knew She Zhijiang, Guo started squirming in her seat and replied: “I don’t know him. And I hope, Your Honor, Mr. Chair, I can get the details. I want to file a case. I don’t know them.”
It was Davao Oriental Rep. Cheeno Almario who presented the video.
“Mr. Chair, I’d like to point out to this committee that even if we have been making our own research, pulling up our own inquiries, this is another source from a completely different party and is unrelated to what we do,” Almario told the quad committee, stressing the significance of the information obtained from the documentary.
When PBA party-list Rep. Margarita Nograles asked Guo what benefits she thought She would get by implicating her, the dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor retorted in English and Filipino: “I think it’s better for you to ask him. He was the one who released that video so he knows what benefits he would get. Definitely, I am not a spy.”
This prompted Nograles to comment: “OK. Relax ka lang. Why are you angry?”
“Sinasabi po nila, spy ako. Mahal ko pong Pilipinas, Filipino po ako, hindi po ako spy. (They are saying I am a spy. I love the Philippines. I am a Filipino, I am not a spy),” Guo insisted.
Guo went on explaining her citizenship but she was cut short by Nograles, who noted that Guo was very “defensive” and that her “actuations (were) showing something.”
Guo also denied She’s allegation that he was asked to fund the election campaign of a Guo Hua Ping, which – based on records obtained by lawmakers – is the Chinese name of the former mayor.
“This is unfair for me. I don’t know him and I never asked for campaign funds entirely. I never asked for campaign funds during my campaign period,” she said in Filipino.
Recruited in 2016
Based on the Al Jazeera documentary, She – currently fighting repatriation to China while in detention in Thailand – claimed starting his spy work in the Philippines in 2016, while evading Chinese authorities who ordered his arrest for illegal gambling.
He said his recruiter vowed to arrange the dropping of his criminal case if he accepted the intelligence work.
In the documentary, She alleged having worked with Guo for China’s Ministry of State Security, the communist party’s secret police agency.
The self-confessed spy also echoed the Senate findings that Guo is a full-blooded Chinese whose mother is Lin Wen Yi.
Files shown by She to Al Jazeera included a dossier on Guo Hua Ping, including her local address in Fujian province that is also the local address of the Communist Party of China.
“Guo Hua Ping, China cannot be trusted. The two of us once dedicated our lives to China’s Ministry of State Security. Look at what happened to me,” he said.
“If you don’t want to be eliminated, you should tell the world the truth,” She added.
Senate President Francis Escudero said it is up to the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Foreign Affairs (DFA) to coordinate with Thailand authorities if they wish to dig deeper into the allegations raised by She against Guo.
Escudero said the Al Jazeera documentary on She should be looked into by authorities for possible filing of an espionage case against Guo.
The Senate President said there is a need for Philippine government agencies to coordinate with Thailand where She is detained for alleged illegal online gambling.
“I cannot say if the documentary should be believed. The problem is his testimony given in Thailand might not be used in court because there is no chance to cross-examine. That is up to the DOJ prosecutors and DFA to determine. It is a complicated process,” Escudero said in a dwIZ interview yesterday.
“In any case, the incident could fall within the provisions of espionage, which is spying for a country even without war,” he added.
Escudero lauded the congressional investigation on Guo for putting the spotlight on the proliferation of illegal offshore gambling as well as the collusion between international criminal syndicates and local government officials.
For his part, Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III said while the documentary was aired by a legitimate news agency, he cautioned against readily taking as fact the testimony of a detainee.
“Let us not easily believe the words of a detained person. There are a lot of factors which impose pressure on a detained witness,” Pimentel said in a separate dwIZ interview.
Meanwhile, former senator Ping Lacson lauded the House quad committee for confronting Guo with the documentary and grilling her on her alleged ties to the Chinese communist party.
“Let’s give it to the House of Representatives’ quad comm for their excellent investigative work in exposing Guo Hua’ping a.k.a. Alice Guo with yet to be authenticated official documents and statement of a ‘self-confessed spy’ hired by China Ministry of State Security,” Lacson said in a statement.
“Paging the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and National Security Adviser,” he added. – Marc Jayson Cayabyab