Filipinos wary of spies among us

Why is there so much fuss about a dismissed mayor from a town in Tarlac?

Alice Guo’s presence at the Senate hearings, given her evasive answers that stretched our credulity, may have introduced some comic relief in the past. But then she was able to leave the country undetected, which showed the extent of power of those protecting her.

But people are now more aware that what Guo Hua Ping represents is neither funny nor entertaining. It is a grave and serious national security matter that threatens the core of our sovereign nation.

First, it was just about the presence of Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) in her locality and in other areas, and the crimes being committed in these gaming hubs—money laundering, kidnapping, human trafficking, torture, oppressive labor practices. But the stakes, it turns out, are much higher. The Guo issue raises the specter of espionage by the Chinese through well-planted assets masquerading as government officials in different areas in the Philippines.

This is a very real concern supported by a recent documentary aired on Al Jazeera, which showed Chinese crime leader She Zhijiang, now detained in Thailand, saying he knew Guo because she, like him, was a spy. His former cellmate, Wang Fugui, confirmed that they had documents on Guo that showed she was born in China.

In the latest Senate hearing, an interview with Wang was aired where he again claimed that Guo was a spy. He added that state security controls individuals like Guo who, as field agents, use a fake Filipino identity. Wang said Pogos are being used for espionage as part of a big intelligence strategic plan for colonization around the world.

If Guo is, indeed, a spy, she would have been able to give her handlers good material on the Philippines’ national security and peace and order situation. The Pogos that thrived under her watch could well have been a Trojan horse looking into the country’s security framework. Reports of People’s Liberation Army uniforms found in some Pogo hubs are alarming indicators that they can be used for covert operations or intelligence-gathering.

All this is happening at a time of the filing of certificates of candidacy for the May 2025 national and local elections, with Filipinos seemingly acutely aware of the danger of espionage. A survey commissioned by Stratbase with Pulse Asia revealed that nearly three fourths of Filipinos nationwide, or 73 percent, will not support a candidate who is, or was, pro-China. Only 5 percent said they would support a pro-China candidate, while 23 percent cannot say either. This sentiment is most pronounced in the National Capital Region, with 83 percent saying they would not support a pro-China candidate and just 3 percent saying they would. This survey was conducted from Sept. 6-13, 2024.

The distrust is also apparent in the question about the Philippines’ most trusted partners in national development—just 1 percent answered China. The preferred partners were the United States (79 percent), Japan (50 percent), Canada (43 percent), and Australia (42 percent). Moreover, only 7 percent of respondents cited China as our most beneficial economic partner, with the US (66 percent), Japan (43 percent), Australia (32 percent), and Canada (31 percent) as top answers.

It was the Duterte administration that cultivated this permissive environment for the Chinese. From 2016 to 2022, with the help of pro-Duterte propagandists and pro-China bloggers, and troll armies, China was able to successfully advance its hegemonic agenda in the Philippines. The Chinese information warfare was able to influence and skew the Philippine foreign affairs, military, and economic policies in its favor.

Duterte’s support for China and his wrongful statements about the West Philippine Sea undermined the Philippine position. Duterte maintained that China is a friend despite it invading our maritime zone and island territories in the West Philippine Sea, building artificial islands, and destroying our marine environment.

The survey results above give us some hope that our people would reject candidates that have questionable agendas. But many things can still happen between now and election day.

There are spies from outside who try to infiltrate our way of life, and there are those from within who allow or even encourage them, for their personal, unpatriotic ends.

This is why we need to become more vigilant than ever.

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Dindo Manhit is founder and CEO of the Stratbase Group.