With Guo still at large and the authorities uncovering hundreds of falsified birth certificates belonging to Chinese nationals, officials warn this could be scratching the surface – a troubling glimpse into how foreign actors have exploited the country’s legal and administrative vulnerabilities to burrow deep within Filipino society.
Guo’s troubles began in May, when she was linked to a raided Pogo compound in her hometown of Bamban, Tarlac. The investigation quickly zeroed-in on the murky details of Guo’s own background, including the puzzling fact that she only obtained a birth certificate at the age of 17.
After that initial finding, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said it could represent up to “200 Alice Guos, which is very concerning”. Sources within the Chinese community told him that a falsified birth certificate, passport, and driving licence could all be bought for 300,000 Philippine pesos (US$5,500), he said.
Guo’s case and the fake birth certificates found in Davao del Sur “require a much deeper scrutiny by investigators”, security analyst Ona said.
“I also believe that this could be part of an elaborate scheme with criminal and possibly malign influence intent,” Ona said.
He argued that foreign actors were taking advantage of the Philippines’ vulnerabilities and loopholes in its civil and administrative practices, adding that it was “hard to tell” how many cases like Guo’s exist.
“This has been going on for quite some time. The onus is now on our regulatory and security agencies to do the backtracking and expose these cases,” he said.
“Aside from the usual investigation measures, I believe that these events require a deeper examination of the administrative processes.”
The decentralised, manual, and outdated nature of the country’s administrative practices “have been there for decades”, Ona said – allowing a thriving shadow industry of forged identity documents to proliferate.
02:49
China, Philippines differ over deal to stop clashes at fiercely disputed shoal
China, Philippines differ over deal to stop clashes at fiercely disputed shoal
The Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Statistics Authority and other agencies needed to share more data, Ona said.
“I think that our inability to integrate our systems and to accurately monitor these cases are our weaknesses. This is further exacerbated by corruption due to these gaps,” he said.
This fragmented approach, with different agencies managing disparate processes, has left the door wide open for organised criminal syndicates and potentially malign foreign actors to exploit the Philippines’ vulnerabilities.
Ona said that cases such as Guo’s posed an “ominous threat to public safety and even national security”.
Department of National Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said that the Philippines needed to be “on guard against” the influx of students, businessmen, and even tourists amid rumours that some are state agents deployed by China.
“Naming somebody as a sleeper agent or an agent of a foreign power demands a modicum of evidence,” he said in a television interview on Sunday. “What we have here is evidence very clearly of syndicated cybercrimes and other heinous crimes like human trafficking perpetrated by non-Filipinos and allowed to operate in our environment.”
Curbing crimes carried out through Pogos was “heavily on the domestic agenda of a lot of government agencies”, Teodoro said, as these cases “[weakened] our political and economic fabric.”
The defence secretary urged Philippine lawmakers to update the country’s espionage law, which criminalises obtaining or disclosing information and materials concerning national defence, to be applicable not only in times of war and to include matters of cybersecurity and electronic information sharing.
“A lot of new offences like cybercrimes and other ways of sharing information should be included in the law. Mere face-to-face confrontations are not the way things are done. [The addition of] electronic exchanges of information, and other innovative and disruptive ways of doing harm to the Philippines are necessary,” Teodoro said.