Amend espionage law, Philippine defense chief urges lawmakers

The Philippine defense chief urged lawmakers Monday to amend the country’s anti-espionage law to include peacetime activities, in light of unverified accusations that former town mayor Alice Guo was a spy for China. 

Guo, the ex-mayor of Bamban, a town in northern Tarlac province, was extradited to Manila from Jakarta in early September after being arrested over alleged ties to illegal gaming operations in the Philippines. 

“The espionage law in the Philippines is only effective in times of war,” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. told reporters, adding that the Guo case was a “call to action for lawmakers to amend” the legislation.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Security Council said Monday it was investigating allegations made in a TV interview by a self-professed Chinese spy that he knew Guo and she was also a spy for China, according to local media reports.

In an interview published by Al Jazeera on Sept. 26, She Zhijiang, a Chinese-Cambodian businessman arrested in Thailand, claimed that he and Guo were both Chinese spies.

She referred to her as Guo Hua Ping, another name that Philippine authorities used for her when they had earlier identified the ex-mayor as a Chinese national.    

Enacted in June 1941, the Commonwealth Act No. 616 punishes espionage and other offenses against national security. 

Philippine officials and politicians have aired suspicion that Guo could have spied for China, Manila’s territorial rival in the hotly disputed South China Sea, but they have not produced any evidence in public to back this up.  

“Whether or not she is a spy is something yet to be determined with finality by the proper authorities,” Teodoro said.

Yet it was “curious” that Guo became a mayor of Bamban, a rural town located just two minutes away by air from the army’s training and doctrine command and a light armor division, the defense chief said.

In the Al Jazeera interview, She Zhijiang, who is wanted by Chinese authorities for illegal gambling, said that Beijing had wanted him killed due to his alleged knowledge of Chinese espionage activities.

She, linked to scam operations involved in alleged human trafficking and forced labor, urged Guo to come clean and tell authorities about her real background and activities.

“[Guo], China cannot be trusted. The two of us once dedicated our lives to China’s Ministry of State Security. Look at what happened to me,” the businessman told Al Jazeera in the documentary. “If you don’t want to be eliminated, you should tell the world the truth.”

In response, Guo denied that she knew the businessman.

“I am not a spy. I am totally not a spy,” Guo said on Friday.

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Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who led Senate investigations into the alleged criminal activities involving Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), had earlier told reporters that the former mayor may have been involved in espionage. 

Senators had also accused Guo of having ties to illegal gaming operations and faking her Philippine nationality.

China did not immediately respond to the businessman’s allegations. The Chinese embassy in Manila also did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on the issue.

But in April, the embassy addressed rumors about alleged Chinese “sleeper cells” in the Philippines, saying “there seems to be an ‘invisible hand’ here disseminating disinformation about China.”

“We urge relevant parties in the Philippines to … stop spinning false narratives and arousing anti-China sentiments,” it said.

That same month, Chinese-Filipino civic leader Teresita Ang-See said that the unverified reports were “further churning the waters into a potentially dangerous tsunami” and that “Sinophobia has no part in our civilized Christian society.”

NSC verifying claims

Also on Monday, the National Security Council said it was checking into the spying allegations against Alice Guo. 

“We need to verify the information provided by She Zhijiang because he is a wanted criminal by China,” council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told state television PTV. “He is currently jailed in Bangkok upon the request of the Chinese government. [She] is fighting extradition charges.”

Sen. Francis Tolentino also said that the businessman’s allegation against Guo needed to be backed by evidence.

“First, we do not have jurisdiction over the source in the interview who is detained in Thailand. Second, we do not know the basis of his claim,” Tolentino said on DZBB radio.

“I’ll ask [for Guo’s] reaction to the video. But under the rules of admissibility in our courts, whatever was stated in the video cannot be authenticated because the person who was interviewed is in Thailand,” he said.

The video, Tolentino said, could be authenticated if the source was brought to the Philippines from Thailand to testify, or he could be interviewed at the Philippine Embassy, where members of the Senate could conduct a hearing.

“That’s how the Senate could gain jurisdiction, otherwise it’s just a video,” Tolentino said.

Guo’s case

Guo, who is being held in a suburban Manila jail, faces criminal charges including human trafficking and graft amid accusations. 

Philippine authorities said that based on identification documents, the fingerprints of Guo and a person named Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national who had arrived in the country in July 2003, matched.

Guo, who became mayor of Bamban in 2022, had repeatedly maintained she was Filipino and denied having links to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators, or POGOs.

Jojo Riñoza contributed to this report.

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