By James Jimenez
Of late, Philippine news has been dominated by two fugitives from justice: the small-town mayor who was discovered to be a foreign national, and the appointed Son of God. The timelines of both are worth revisiting:
Alice’s flight from Wonderland
Alice Guo entered public consciousness in late March 2024, after a Senator urged the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to look into the case of the Bamban town mayor in Tarlac who was suspected of having ties to a recently raided POGO hub. If that was the only thing that Guo garnered attention for, the spotlight wouldn’t have stayed on her for too long. But early the following month, under questioning from another Senator, Guo’s citizenship came under scrutiny after she famously claimed to have no recollection of her childhood in Tarlac. The public’s imagination was captured, and Guo spawned hundreds of memes, all but guaranteeing that she would be a national fixation for a long time.
On May 22, 2024, it was revealed that Guo’s supposed parents did not have birth records with the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), with an official of the PSA claiming that there was indeed a “high possibility” that the people named as Guo’s parents in the mayor’s birth certificate, did not even exist.
Coincidentally, this would also be the last time Alice Guo would be seen in public.
During the months of May and June, Guo would be suspended and later dismissed from office, with several complaints being filed against her, one after the other. It was also at this time that speculations arose that she had already fled the country; her lawyer belied the claims, saying his client remained in the Philippines despite her continued absence at various hearings.
On July 21, Alice was reported to have arrived in Singapore where she then stayed for about a month, leaving on August 18, to travel to Batam, Indonesia. Alice, together with Shiela Guo, thought to be her sister, allegedly rendezvoused with their alleged brother, Wesley, there.
The following day, August 19, a Senator announced that Alice Guo, together with Shiela and Wesley Guo, have left the Philippines, despite denials by the Department of Justice, the Bureau of Immigration, and, Guo’s lawyer. Two days later, Shiela Guo and Cassandra Ong were arrested in Batam. Alice, however, was nowhere to be found.
On August 22, Shiela Guo and Cassandra Ong were deported to the Philippines, Five days later, on August 27, Shiela Guo – initially thought to be Alice’s sister – faced the Senate Justice panel and revealed that she was not Alice Guo’s sister, and recounts how they, along with a certain Wesley Go, had been picked up by a van, taken to an unidentified port, and travelled to Malaysia by boat, eventually entering Kuala Lumpur on July 18.
On August 30, charges of money laundering were filed against Guo and her cohorts. On September 1, after weeks of claiming that Alice Guo was in the country, her lawyer disclosed that the unseated Mayor, now wanted to surrender but had concerns about her safety. Two days later, on September 3, at 11:58 PM, Alice Guo was finally arrested by Indonesian authorities.
Alice Guo’s story is far from done, but at least she is now in custody. She can be made to face the music and be held accountable for whatever crimes she may have committed. This is in stark contrast to the story of Apollo Quiboloy.
Man on the run
After snubbing the summons of the Philippine Senate, Quiboloy – the self-proclaimed “Appointed Son of God” and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) – went to ground, defying repeated calls for him to submit to an inquiry. What followed were Qualified Human Trafficking charges under Section 4 (a) of Republic Act 9208, as amended, filed in a Pasig court; and further charges under Section 5(b) and Section 10(a) of RA 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act, filed in Davao.
In April 2024, the Davao court issued an arrest warrant against Quiboloy, which was quickly followed by another arrest order from the Pasig court. The renegade pastor slipped past both, much to the Philippine National Police’s chagrin.
The following month, May 2024, the Supreme Court allowed the transfer of the Davao cases to Quezon City, to avoid a miscarriage of justice. In June, Quiboloy once again evaded capture despite attempts to serve the warrants at the KOJC compound, the Prayer Mountain, and the Glory Mountain in Barangay Tamayong, Davao City. There were attempts to serve the warrants in Kitbog, Sarangani Province, but those were equally unsuccessful.
In July 2024, a ten-million-peso bounty was offered for information that would lead to the arrest of Quiboloy, who – according to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Benhur Abalos – was believed to still be in the Philippines.
August, the Court of Appeals issued a freeze order against Quiboloy’s ten bank accounts, seven real properties, five motor vehicles and one aircraft. And on August 24, several days later, approximately 2,000 PNP personnel – some of them clad in riot gear – again descended on the KOJC compound in Davao city, in an attempt to apprehend the self-styled appointed son of God. Despite using state of the art detection equipment, they are still there to this very day, more than three months since Quiboloy openly defied the Philippine Senate and the Philippine justice system.
Impact
Once cannot help but ask: what sort of damage this kind intransigence is causing to the country’s social, political, and international landscape. The stories of Alice Guo and Apollo Quiboloy serve to highlight the complexities of justice in the Philippines, revealing not only how easily power and privilege can be used to frustrate justice, but also throwing a harsh light on the limits of the institutions designed to uphold justice.
While Guo’s capture does represent a hard-fought moment of accountability, Quiboloy’s continuing defiance really just underscores the profound weakness of law enforcement in the country. Together, the national experience with these two fugitives from justice raise disturbing questions about the broader implications for governance and the rule of law – questions that will be very relevant in the coming 2025 National and Local Elections.
