Fugitives and rising floodwaters

First things first: If you are high and dry during these stormy days but are in no position to directly lend a hand to those who have gone underwater, there are a number of ways to extend help, thanks to digital banking and other services.

If I may re-word an oft-repeated phrase that has gone viral in the LOL department, here goes: “You cannot say you don’t know how, you cannot say you don’t know where, you cannot say you don’t know who. You cannot …” A little humor at the expense of haughty, feeling-entitled, don’t-mess-with-me government officials can’t hurt.

The massive flooding in areas in the Philippines that were not flood-prone in the past is a warning and indication of wrongs that need to be fixed. Quarrying, deforestation, garbage clogging waterways, and land reclamation have long stared us in the face. We cannot put the entire blame on climate change. Every year, this country goes deeper in floodwaters, claiming lives, destroying homes, infrastructures, and crops.

But even during this gloomy week of rising floodwaters that wreak havoc on lives and livelihood, there are other events that grab our attention, such as the hunt for fugitives who, because of their criminal operations, have also wreaked havoc on our life as a nation, abused persons, and broken the laws of the land. I am referring to the undesirable alien and fugitive, dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, aka Guo Hua Ping, and company who were snared in Indonesia in recent days. Guo fraudulently acquired a fake Philippine birth certificate and Philippine passport and passed herself off as a Filipino. Puede pala. It can be done.

Guo, the lone catch two days ago, has yet to be repatriated pending an “exchange” request from Indonesian authorities. My two cents: Send back the suspected drug-dealing Australian national Gregor Haas in exchange for Guo. If repatriated to Indonesia and convicted, Haas could be hanged (or maybe not) which would put no-death-penalty Philippines in a bind. But compare Haas’ one life with the countless lives that have been lost, no thanks to Guo and company for their alleged involvement in the recently banned Philippine offshore gaming operators, proven crime hubs without compare.

A joke going around: The fugitive pastor Apollo “Appointed Son of God” Quiboloy, who is facing criminal charges here and in the United States, whom hundreds of police operatives continue to hunt down and extract from his paradise-like “kingdom” in Davao City, should just be allowed to escape to Indonesia where he is likely to be arrested, thanks to Indonesia’s more sophisticated surveillance system.

The Guo caper reminds me of the highly rated documentary “The Girl in the Picture” (96 percent from Rotten Tomatoes) directed by Skye Borgman and based on the books “A Beautiful Child” and “Finding Sharon” by Matt Birkbeck who was also the producer.) I paraphrase from review notes: A young woman, identified as Sharon Marshall, dies in Oklahoma City from injuries she sustained in a hit and run. The doctors and police suspect foul play, but they also need to find out who she really is. Their clue: a picture of her. Through research and investigation of those who might have recognized her picture and known her in the past, the mystery begins to unravel and the horror that she had gone through in her life is revealed.

As per investigation, the victim was a young girl when she was abducted by a federal fugitive who raised her as his own daughter and over the next 20 years, sexually abused her and forced her to marry him. She died in a highly suspicious hit-and-run accident in 1990.

It was through the efforts of Birkbeck, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, that Sharon’s true identity was finally established.

It took years to uncover her multilayered identity, how it got to be that way, how persons of interest were slowly drawn into the picture, how kith and kin surfaced to give pieces about her life and her multiple identities. It is a heart-rending story about a young woman buffeted by circumstances beyond her control, and used and abused by persons who looked upon her as a mere commodity or possession. The documentary ends with persons known to her attending the change of her name on her gravestone.

It is a stormy day piece for reflection, a story that is probably also at play in our midst. As I have written earlier, the story of Guo’s true identity is a plot for a spy thriller as she is suspected to be a spy for China, the enemy at the gates.

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