The Philippines’ Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) is reportedly looking into all elected officials of Chinese nationality following the recent dismissal of so-called “POGO Mayor” Alice Guo.
According to local media outlet Philippine Star, PAOCC executive director Gilbert Cruz confirmed the commission had received many messages from concerned citizens about officials who appear to be foreigners, although he added nationality can’t be used as the sole reason to remove someone from a post.
“We need to validate because we will be unfair if we say that because the official has a Chinese name, that’s the situation,” he said.
However, Cruz did admit that it was possible there were other officials operating under a different name like Guo, pointing to a recent investigation that had uncovered thousands of birth certificates in Davao, according to Philippine Star.
This investigation, he explained, had revealed that around 1,000 Chinese citizens acquired new identities through fraudulent birth certificates.
“Over 1,000 are being probed just on birth certificates in one province,” Cruz said.
In a case that has enthralled the Philippines and played a central role in the looming ban on offshore gaming operators, or POGOs, Guo – the former mayor of Bamban, was outed as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping in March after fingerprint comparisons found them to be one and the same.
Accused of aiding the illegal activities of POGO firm Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, whose premises was raided by authorities earlier this year on suspicion of being involved in human trafficking and cryptocurrency scams, Guo ultimately fled the country before being located in Indonesia and returned to face a Senate hearing.
