Verify spy claims, intel agencies urged

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian —Senate Social Media Unit

MANILA, Philippines — The government’s intelligence agencies should verify the claim of a detained Chinese businessman in Thailand that Alice Guo is part of China’s network of spies, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said on Monday, as he reiterated that the dismissed mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, “cannot be trusted.”

“Of course, no spy will admit that they are a spy… But this is the first time that I’ve seen concrete information… linking her to the Chinese government and [accusing] her [of] being a spy,” Gatchalian said in a television interview.

The senator, who had exposed Guo’s alleged links to the illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) in her town, was reacting to a documentary about She Zhijiang, who is detained in Bangkok on illegal gambling charges.

READ: Agitated? Alice Guo loses cool after House shows docu on Chinese spy

‘Penetrated’ system

In an interview with Al Jazeera news agency, She admitted to working as a Chinese spy who was supposedly recruited while he was in the Philippines.

He said he kept a digital file about a group of Chinese spies, including a dossier of a certain Guo Hua Ping, the sacked Bamban mayor’s alleged Chinese name.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who has been leading the Senate inquiries on Pogos, had previously raised the possibility that Guo was a Chinese “asset” sent to infiltrate the country’s political system.

Gatchalian said, “This is something that we need to take very seriously because, from a macro point of view, our political system has been penetrated if… this information is true.”

“We need to validate the information,” he added. “We need to ask our defense [and] intelligence establishments whether this information is true or not.”

According to him, the senators should take Guo’s words “with a lot of grain of salt.”

“She cannot be trusted,” he stressed. “And she already revealed the strategy of her legal team—that she will now plead that she is a victim.”

But the National Security Council (NSC) on Monday said it is not pouncing on She’s claims.

“What the NSC will do is study this issue, we will have to consult with our partner intelligence agencies abroad so we can patch the pieces together and find out the true identity of Alice Guo if she is really an agent of the MSS (Ministry of State Security) of PRC (People’s Republic of China),” NSC spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said in a television interview.

Amend espionage law

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. called on lawmakers to amend the country’s espionage law.

“The espionage law in the Philippines is only effective in times of war,” Teodoro told reporters. He said those acting contrary to national interests should be punished not only in wartime but “in times of peace.”

The Philippines’ anti-espionage law was crafted before World War II.

“This is a call to action to authorities for them to amend the law so the government could punish those engaging in espionage,” Teodoro said. —with reports from Melvin Gascon and Frances Mangosing