An official from the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Friday they recognize the need to improve professionalism among personnel from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), following their viral photos with dismissed Bamban Tarlac, Mayor Alice Guo in Indonesia.
Photos of BI and NBI agents with Guo went viral on social media as they escorted her before she boarded a flight back to the Philippines via chartered flight RP-C6188.
In an interview, DOJ Usec. Raul Vasquez said the former mayor is a fugitive from justice such that she must be treated in the same manner as any other offender.
“We asked the NBI Director [Jaime Santiago] to initiate an investigation on the matter and impose disciplinary penalties as may be needed,” he told Manila Standard.
Vazquez said the arrest is ‘huge news’ even from the eyes of international media.
However, he also considered the ‘euphoria of success of having finally gotten hold of a fugitive, who has been making a joke out of our law enforcement effort’ is also a factor.
Guo was apprehended by Indonesian authorities on Wednesday and was accompanied by Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos, Jr. and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Rommel Francisco Marbil back to the Philippines on Friday early morning.
Vasquez said the custody of Guo was an ‘immigration-to-immigration arrangement’ because of her violation of immigration laws of Indonesia.
Despite this positive development, he noted the DOJ will further investigate this matter because “this is just one little piece of the big puzzle.”
“We have always been saying that there is a national security angle here. That’s how big the problem is that our government is looking at… The important thing for us is to continue the investigation so that we can find out if there is another Alice Guo that we don’t know about,” said Vasquez.
He opined the current situation is a challenge for the legislature noting that “if we don’t discover Alice Guo and she is a natural-born citizen, technically she can even run for the Senate.”
