Many people enjoy a good spy story. But not when the story is a true one, and the setting is in their country, and what are at stake are their sovereignty and security.
This is what the now-detained former Mayor Alice Guo is insisting: that the Al Jazeera documentary that aired last week is patently false.
Guo is not the star of the documentary produced by 101 East and aired over Al Jazeera. The 25-minute film centers around She Zhijiang, a businessman who had fallen out of favor with the Chinese government and who is now in prison in Thailand. The businessman claims he was recruited by China’s Ministry of State Secrets. In fact, introductions were made in the Philippines. He also provided video clips of his attendance to a state dinner hosted in Malacañang. He, under a Cambodian name, was invited by the Palace by then-President Rodrigo Duterte at the time to the banquet with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping in attendance.
This was during happier times and before the Chinese government thought She knew too much about the Belt and Road projects and the activities of Chinese officials involved in them.
Guo is mentioned as a fellow spy. There was a dossier on her with a photo and documents showing she was born in China to a Chinese mother. Her listed address was the local headquarters of the Communist Party. Interviewed online from prison, She advised Guo — who She said dedicated her life to the Ministry of State Security like him – that China cannot be trusted.
“If you don’t want to be eliminated, you should tell the world the truth,” he told her. When Guo learned of this, she denied she was a spy and even threatened to charge She and the network.
Riveting spy claims notwithstanding, what does this mean for us Filipinos? Why are we even devoting so much time and resources to this saga when there are so many other basic things that need our attention?
If only Guo talked a long time ago, then the public would have had an idea of the extent of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator activities in the country, how they were able to skirt regulations, bring in thousands of foreigners, and conduct their operations. We would have known how they were able to get away with criminal activities such as violence, trafficking, kidnapping, inhumane labor conditions. Most importantly, we would have learned which officials enabled, encouraged, and profited from these activities.
Accusations of espionage are even more relevant today given the consistent incursions of the Chinese into what has been established by international law as belonging to the Philippines. The Chinese insist otherwise and twist the narrative to show it is Filipinos who are encroaching into what is theirs. Who knows what other valuable information they could get out of people they have so conveniently planted among the populace? Who knows how much damage officials who have allowed all these to happen have already brought?
It is easy to get caught up in fantastic claims and melodramatic exchanges happening in the supposedly august halls of Congress. But we should always return to the “So what?” of things. When we do this, it becomes clear what the silence, the contempt, and evasion are telling us. The buck does not stop with a former small-town mayor from Tarlac, and we should not stop until we know how much higher, how much deeper, and how much wider this goes, so that we can clamor for appropriate action.
