DOJ: Malaysian authorities mum on Guo’s escape to KL
The Malaysian government refused to provide any information to Philippine authorities who are investigating how dismissed Bamban, Tarlac, Mayor Alice Guo managed to leave Manila and fly to Kuala Lumpur last year, according to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
“The case of Alice Guo is a very peculiar case because Malaysia refused to cooperate with us,” Remulla said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday.
According to the head of the Department of Justice (DOJ), which has supervision over the Bureau of Immigration (BI), Kuala Lumpur was “supposed to” provide information to Manila, as they would know the flight that entered their airspace as well as the aircraft Guo was supposedly on.
“But they refused to give it to us,” Remulla said.
He attributed the difficulty in obtaining information from Malaysia to the latter’s foreign policy “setup.”
“Because remember, all of these immigration people trade information freely most of the time. But in the case of Malaysia, we faced a stone wall,” he said.
The Inquirer reached out to Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Malaysian Embassy in Manila for comment but has yet to receive a response as of press time.
Guo, also known as Guo Hua Ping, and her companions managed to leave the country undetected in July last year, at the height of congressional inquiries into her alleged ties to a raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) complex in Bamban, Tarlac. The BI admitted earlier this month that it was still clueless about how she managed to escape.
Info from sources
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, one of the lawmakers leading the investigation, disclosed on Aug. 24 that Guo left the country for Kuala Lumpur on July 18 using her Philippine passport. She was arrested in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sept. 4.
Citing information from her sources, Hontiveros said that after going to Malaysia, Guo proceeded to Singapore to meet her father Guo Jian Zhong, mother Lin Wen Yi, brother Wesley Guo and Cassandra Ong, one of her business associates and the named representative of the raided Pogo hub Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga.
In a Senate hearing on March 4, BI Intelligence Division Chief Fortunato Manahan said they have yet to receive a response to the letters sent to the immigration offices of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong as part of their investigation into Guo’s escape.
