Photos from Senate of the Philippines/OSP
MANILA, Philippines — Dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo’s tricky answers during Monday’s Senate hearing is a trait of a “trained and smart foreign spy,” according to former Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
For the first time since her arrest last week, Guo appeared in a Senate probe into her alleged involvement in a Philippine offshore gaming operator hub in Bamban, Tarlac.
Guo was cited for contempt once more for “testifying falsely and evasively” on her real identity.
“The way Guo Hua Ping a.k.a Alice Guo was taking the senators for a ride during the hearing, she could be a trained and smart foreign spy who had already started to climb the ladder of the country’s political structure as an elected municipal mayor,” Lacson said in a statement.
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Lacson further delved into hypotheticals on what could have happened had the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) not exposed Guo.
“In the realm of possibilities, she could be a member of Congress who has access to highly classified information with national security implications,” he said.
“Had PAOCC not exposed her illegal activities, what if, in the long term, she and her handlers, using money and/or influence, managed to get her appointed as DND secretary or national security adviser?”
Guo has denied accusations that she is a foreign spy, insisting that she is a Filipino.
On Wednesday, Sept. 4, Indonesian authorities apprehended Guo in Jakarta. She returned to the Philippines on Sept. 6.