Guo and the biggest problem

As aptly described by The Philippine STAR, suspended Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac, recently “surfaced… on Facebook” with an official statement. The Senate sergeant-at-arms is currently looking for her with a warrant for her arrest due to her refusal to appear before the Senate.

I wanted to let the issue about Alice Guo take a breather for a while until the Senate had taken her into custody. However, there was a sentence --a question, in fact-- in her official statement that caught my attention and, in my view, deserves an answer.

In her official statement, Alice Guo, whom forensic evidence from the National Bureau of Investigation has identified as Chinese citizen ‘Guo Hua Ping’, asked, “Am I really the country’s biggest problem that they need to focus on?”

It was a rhetorical question, of course, meant to drive home the point that the attention towards her has been unwarranted amid the many bigger problems the country faces.

I am compelled by the question because the answer is indeed a resounding 'Yes!' Alice Guo, whom fingerprint evidence obtained by the NBI shows to share the same fingerprints with Guo Hua Ping --a foreigner who entered the country in 2003 and has no record of exiting-- is the Philippines’ biggest problem.

The evidence presented against Alice Guo, including damning documentary and forensic details, remains credible in the absence of any rebuttal from her. Their credibility stands uncontested until she provides an explanation under oath before the Senate and not through unaccountable statements posted on social media.

Thus, we are presented with a damning narrative: A Chinese citizen has made it all the way to becoming the mayor of a town in Tarlac. How did this happen? How can such a travesty to our Constitution and Immigration laws occur right under the noses of our officials? To what extent has corruption penetrated our bureaucracy and legal system, allowing foreigners to exploit it?

The Philippines' biggest problem --corruption and betrayal-- manifests most starkly in how some public officials are willing to sell their country to foreigners for the right price. Alice Guo's case exemplifies this problem, where it appears that identity and citizenship can be bought, undermining the very foundations of our national integrity.

This not only betrays the trust of the Filipino people but also threatens the legal and democratic frameworks that are supposed to hold this nation together. Guo represents the country’s biggest problem: she embodies the weakening of our institutions and the erosion of the values that once held our communities together.

Heads must roll, and accountability must be enforced at every level where foreigners have made a mockery of our systems to serve their own and/or their masters’ ends in our land. The Alice Guo saga is a wake-up call to shape up and reaffirm our commitment to the rule of law.

This should also serve as a lesson to those in government and to people who have been entrusted with authority and power. Deviations from regulations have repercussions that may not manifest immediately but will gradually erode the very foundations of our nationhood. Global geopolitics is already as unpredictable as it is now. If we continue with our own parochial shenanigans here at home, we are likely to be left without much of a country or system to defend. We will find ourselves at the mercy of the both the mighty and the pesky.

Alice Guo may be just one person who became mayor of the second-class municipality of Bamban in Tarlac, but she has become the embodiment of this country’s biggest problem.