Celebrity and notoriety

Last Friday I joked that Alice Guo was on her way to the Commission on Elections – not to face her disqualification case for faking her Philippine citizenship, but to file her certificate of candidacy for the Senate in 2025.

The scary part was that several people thought I wasn’t joking. And the scariest part was that some of them thought she might win.

This was after they saw all those viral videos and photos of our law enforcement officials giddily taking selfies with Guo in Jakarta where she was turned over by Indonesian authorities to the top-level Philippine delegation that picked her up and escorted her back to Manila on a chartered jet.

Little wonder that the dismissed mayor of Bamban, Tarlac looked as ecstatic as her escorts, striking cutesy poses like a K-drama star between the secretary of the interior and the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Oh well, maybe she was genuinely thrilled that Secretary Benhur Abalos and Gen. Rommel Marbil had chartered a plane ASAP to personally pick her up from Indonesia.

Her legal team’s spin was that Guo had feared for her life, and was relieved to have been caught and turned over safely to Philippine authorities. She felt so safe that she eschewed posting bail and remained in PNP custody. (Her lawyers had a more valid explanation: she still faces non-bailable cases, so it’s pointless to post bail for her graft case in Capas, Tarlac.)

*      *      *

Speaking of graft, some spoilsports called out Abalos for the cost of chartering a private jet to Jakarta and back. He explained that the flight did not cost taxpayers a single cent since the plane was provided by a private benefactor whom he did not identify.

The spoilsports pointed out (correctly) that government officials are prohibited from accepting such favors from the private sector under Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

President Marcos, who also has a penchant for traveling on private jets for watching the Formula One in Singapore, can be expected to brush aside such criticisms of the conduct of one of his alter egos.

BBM appeared amused by his security officials’ photo ops with Guo, brushing it aside as a cultural thing and pointing out that the Philippines is the world’s selfie capital.

The explanation missed the point, that if ordinary folks are unable to draw the line between celebrity and notoriety, top government officials and law enforcement officers at least should be able to do so.

Especially since some of the persons who took cutesy selfies with one of the Philippines’ most wanted belong to agencies that are being blamed for Guo’s escape.

Guo is accused of serious offenses that could put her away for life, including qualified human trafficking and large-scale money laundering. She is being implicated in illegal offshore gaming operations that branched out into cyberscams and torture. Nothing cutesy about those activities.

*      *      *

Under different circumstances, the rise of Alice Guo from obscurity to mayor of the second-class municipality of Bamban would be encouraging news.

It indicated an openness of voters to a young, female political newbie running as an independent candidate to be their local chief executive.

Guo bested six male rivals, two of them belonging to major political parties: the Nationalist People’s Coalition and PDP-Laban. She garnered at least 16,503 votes, beating her closest rival, a barangay captain belonging to the NPC, by about 500 votes. The next contender, an independent, was way behind with only over 3,200 votes. The outcome was not challenged.

How did Guo achieve this feat? It probably helped that her running mate was a former mayor of Bamban, Leonardo Anunciacion. He also won as Guo’s vice mayor. But the guessing focuses on Guo’s spreading “goodwill” all around and easing the most pressing concerns of the voting masses in 2022.

That was a year when the country had not yet fully recovered from the pandemic. Apart from the tragedy of tens of thousands of lives lost to COVID, people were contending with the economic devastation caused by the prolonged and stringent pandemic restrictions.

Most of the voters in 2022 wanted urgent relief in the lowest level of the hierarchy of needs as defined by Abraham Maslow: food and other basic physiological necessities.

The government was in the best position to answer these needs, so the administration candidates had an even greater advantage than usual. Combined with the wealth that the Marcos clan poured into the full redemption of the family name, non-administration candidates didn’t stand a chance.

Alice Guo didn’t run under the UniTeam. But by 2022, she was already believed to be flush with cash from Philippine offshore gaming operations, although she claimed she spent only P134,000 for her campaign. She could afford to own half (she says) of that 10-hectare property where the Hongsheng POGO was built. After being raided and shut down last year, Hongsheng was recycled into Zun Yuan Technology Inc.

Before all these issues cropped up about her faking her Philippine birth certificate, lying to the Senate and the Comelec, Guo felt confident that the people of Bamban loved her enough to reelect her in 2025. She could be right about the love.

*      *      *

Giving voters reasons to love a candidate, other than the capability to provide ayuda and spread material goodwill, should be a priority if we want a strong republic.

Unfortunately, the status quo works for so many of those who are in a position to implement the necessary reforms.

The status quo thrives on keeping voters poor and dependent on tax-funded ayuda from epal political patrons, and unable to understand the public’s right to good governance and the judicious use of tax money.

The status quo has allowed people to occupy government posts on the strength mainly of their surname. It has allowed incompetent, comprehension-challenged, crooked and murderous thieves to win elective posts.

And now the status quo has given us Guo Hua Ping, a.k.a. Alice Guo.

As of yesterday, a video was going around showing her as an endorser of “Fugitive Beauty Cream.” The pitch: “Endorsed by Guo Hua Ping. Blooming while hiding. Even if you’re stressed, you can still be at your best.”

Alice Guo might yet join the other folks who have parlayed their notoriety into high elective office.