EDITORIAL — The Philippines in Wonderland

The saga of Alice Guo, or Guo Hua Ping, or whatever her real name and nationality might be, keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. If law enforcement authorities are correct, Guo easily faked her Philippine identity and nationality, became mayor of a town in Tarlac and protected a lucrative scam hub with a torture chamber in a sprawling property that she co-owned. When she was found out, she easily slipped out of the country.

Now it turns out that two persons believed to be her siblings also faked their identities and Philippine citizenship. One of them, Sheila Leal Guo, has the same fingerprints as Chinese national Zhang Mier, based on the files of the Bureau of Immigration, according to the National Bureau of Investigation. Zhang was intercepted this week by authorities in Indonesia and turned over to the Philippines along with Cassandra Li Ong, an incorporator of the Philippine offshore gaming operator hub that was raided in Bamban.

Alice Guo is reportedly still in Indonesia together with another person believed to be her brother, whose name in the Philippines is Wesley Leal Guo.

This national embarrassment could have only happened through a combination of corruption, inefficiency, neglect and weak governance capabilities. The Bureau of Immigration, which seems to have had an epiphany about its responsibilities, said there is no record of Sheila Guo leaving the Philippines, but there is a record of her entry through Sabah.

Last month, the NBI uncovered up to 1,200 cases of Chinese nationals obtaining fake Philippine birth certificates through late birth registration in the town of Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur. Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said each fake certificate was issued reportedly in exchange for an average of P300,000. Civil registrars, who are under the Philippine Statistics Authority, reportedly operate independently from the local government. The NBI said the civil registrar of Sta. Cruz town since 1994, Mario Tizon, has been suspended amid the scandal over fake birth certificates.

It seems that in this country, every government transaction offers an opportunity for graft. Authorities are still trying to find out how the Guo family managed to slip out of the country at the height of a high-profile congressional investigation. The biggest concern at this point is how many other Alice Guos / Guo Hua Pings are still out there, exploiting a crooked and compromised system, and getting away with it. The government must move quickly to plug all the loopholes that created Alice Guo.