EDITORIAL - After the heads roll

As promised, heads have started rolling. And first to roll was that of Norman Tansingco, who learned of his ouster as commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration from journalists while he was attending the Senate hearing yesterday on the escape of Alice Guo. Beyond sacking officials, there should be long-term reforms in the BI that will deter not only the escape of a high-profile fugitive, but also the entry of undesirable aliens who are turning the country into a regional hub for human trafficking, cyberscams, illegal gaming and even kidnapping and torture.

The dismissed mayor of Bamban, Tarlac faced the Senate for the first time since being escorted back to the Philippines on a private jet by no less than the secretary of the interior and the chief of the Philippine National Police. Alice Guo repeated what her supposed sibling Shiela had told the Senate last week, that they left the country by boat, which the former mayor said was a yacht, from a location that the Guos cannot or will not identify.

Immigration officials have pointed out that there are too many small or makeshift ports across the archipelago with no government presence. BI officials have maintained that the Guos did not pass through airports or regular seaports with immigration personnel.

President Marcos, however, agreed with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, that the BI needs a new head not just because of the Guos’ escape, but also because of persistent problems such as the entry of foreigners that set up shady enterprises or work in such businesses in the Philippines.

At the Senate yesterday, under pressure from senators, Alice Guo wrote down the name of a Chinese man who allegedly helped her escape. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada said the man holds five passports and is currently in Taiwan. Did this man enter the Philippines? Guo hinted that the threats to her life came from this Chinese and others who were involved in the Philippine offshore gaming operator hub that was set up in her sprawling property in Bamban.

Apart from seeing heads rolling, the nation also wants to know how Chinese citizens could make a mockery of Philippine institutions, from the Philippine Statistics Authority, which gave them fake Philippine birth certificates, to the Commission on Elections, which allowed Alice Guo to become mayor of Bamban.