Though she has been using it in her latest travels, the Philippine passport of Shiela L. Guo, sister of dismissed Mayor Alice L. Guo of Bamban town in Tarlac, bore no Philippine immigration markings, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) disclosed on Monday, Aug. 26.
“Mukha pong they used illegal means para makalabas po ng bansa (It seems they used illegal means to get out of the Philippines),” said BI Spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval during an interview on Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon on PTV.
Shiela and Katherine Cassadra Ong have been ordered arrested by the House of Representatives and the Senate after being cited in contempt but managed to slip out of the country last July.
The two women, both of whom have been linked to illegal activities of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), returned to the Philippines last Aug. 22 after they were arrested by local authorities in Indonesia.
Sandoval disclosed that the BI has checked Shiela’s Philippine passport and found “wala pong markings or tatak po ng immigration doon po (it has no immigration markings or stamps).”
Sandoval theorized that “maaaring ito rin po ang ginawa na modus nitong si dating Mayor Alice Guo (dismissed Mayor Alice Guo may have done the same scheme).”
The BI spokesperson said that the bureau initially learned last Aug. 15, when Commissioner Norman Tansingco was in Vietnam for a conference, that Alice and her companions have left the Philippines.
The BI also received information that Alice and her companions -- Ong, Shiela and brother Wesley -- have plane tickets to the Philippines from Singapore.
“Although noong binantayan po wala pong dumating at hindi sila nagboard nung eroplano. But it got the BI leadership asking questions why does she have a ticket from outside the country papasok po ng Pilipinas kung sa records po natin ay nasa loob po s’ya ng Pilipinas (When it was monitored, they did not arrive in the Philippines and they did not board their plane. But it got the BI leadership asking questions why does she have a ticket outside the country going to the Philippines when records showed that she has not left the Philippines),” Sandoval said.
Thus, she said, Tansingco immediately asked his counterparts in Vietnam for any information they have concerning Guo.
However, Sandoval lamented that last Aug. 19 news reports started coming out that Guo is no longer in the country while the BI has been trying to verify the information.
“There was no intent to hide the information,” she said. "The information was highly conflicting and inconsistent," she added.
Other conflicting pieces of information on Alice Guo's whereabout are that “we received confirmation po na dumating po s’ya sa Malaysia and dumating po s’ya Singapore (she arrived in Malaysia and Singapore).”
“They (Malaysia) are confident that Alice Guo is inside their country while Singapore is also saying that Alice Guo is inside their country,” she also said.
“So very conflicting po ‘yung mga information natanggap ng ating ahensya kaya minarapat muna ng ating liderato na iverify from other reliable sources itong mga impormasyon na ito (So we received conflicting information and so the agency’s leadership decided to verify this from reliable sources),” she added.