For weeks now, the Alice Guo mystery has not abated in the mainstream media. It is still a merry-go-round, as far as the Filipino people are concerned. They wonder how this Marcos-Duterte administration is handling this case of the missing Alice Guo. Dismissed as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, she has been on the run since she last sat before the Quad Committee hearing in Congress.
The Quad Committee, the DOJ, the NBI, the BI, and other law enforcement authorities apparently have been unable to put their acts together to expedite Alice Guo’s apprehension. It took them too long to find out that she left the country last July 18, according to Sen. Risa Hontiveros. And the hunt for Alice Guo had gone overseas. She must have been laughing somehow at this bungling administration, probably along with the POGO-mastermind, who most likely used to be highly influential at the top of the government bureaucracy. And this may be the reason for the long search for the fugitive ex-mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
After many weeks of speculating where Alice Guo may have been hiding, the government had to show only lately that at least they have caught up with Alice’ sister, Shiela, who carried a Chinese passport in the name of Zhang Mier. Apprehended with Shiela Guo was business associate Katherine Cassandra Ong, the representative of the raided Pogo hub Lucky South 99 in Porac, Pampanga.
Comedy of Errors
It is a comedy-of-errors, or a tragedy, that this government focused on this one fugitive, while millions of Filipinos are sadly waiting for the promised P20 per kilogram of rice, so that their P64 can tide them over for the day’s meal, if this is possible at all.
The economy in fact must be given top priority by the government administration, as a matter of paramount importance if the country may be considered as stable, healthy and governed properly as it should be.
In other words, how and why did this mystery of Alice Guo happen in the first place, deviating the attention of government officials on the economy and other critical problems of the country? Which government entities were sleeping on the job from the start? Was it Comelec which did not bother to check if Alice Guo was qualified to run for public office? Was it the LGU Mayor then and other Bamban officials who probably didn’t bother to check the credentials of Alice Guo as a Bamban resident? Didn’t Alice Guo’s opponent himself check the qualifications of his rival running for the position of Bamban mayor? Why did the voters themselves miss fully knowing whether or not Alice Guo was really qualified to run as the mayor of their town?
A mystery, indeed, and the Filipino people are wondering when this Marcos-Duterte leadership tandem will be able to stop this tragedy of a Merry-Guo-Round, and finally lead to a successful conclusion for the Filipino people.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonColumn #ColumnbyBoniMacaranas #PoliticsIsLife