{"id":777021028,"date":"2024-11-27T09:27:56","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T12:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777021028"},"modified":"2026-04-22T03:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:49:34","slug":"philippine-nica-director-says-former-mayor-alice-guo-may-be-chinese-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-nica-director-says-former-mayor-alice-guo-may-be-chinese-agent","title":{"rendered":"Philippine NICA director says former mayor Alice Guo may be Chinese agent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Guo was accused of using her position to influence public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) deputy director <strong>Francisco Acedillo <\/strong>has told the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality that <strong>Alice Guo<\/strong>, the suspended mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, might be an &#8220;agent of influence.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Acedillo told the panel during\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippine-senate-to-hold-final-hearing-on-offshore-gaming-operators\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the last public hearing<\/a>\u00a0on illegal activities linked to offshore gaming operators that Guo fits the classification due to her ability to leverage her status or position to influence public opinion or decision-making &#8220;to produce results beneficial to the country whose services they benefit from.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Within the historical context, given that these activities have been common, especially during the Cold War, the activities and the facts that have come to light so far in this committee and in other committees, especially in the House, point to the fact that she is an agent. And even in discussions within the intelligence community, there is consensus that indeed she is an agent of influence,&#8221; he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An agent of influence differs from a foreign intelligence agent, who would typically be trained, employed, and overseen by an intelligence organisation. <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/alice-guo-arrested-in-jakarta\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Guo was arrested<\/a> in Tangerang City, Jakarta, in September after a search. She had\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/suspended-mayor-alice-guo-reportedly-no-longer-in-the-philippines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">left the Philippines<\/a>\u00a0on July 17. Senate inquiries uncovered bank dealings involving companies owned by Guo totalling hundreds of millions of pesos, which facilitated the establishment of an offshore gaming operator in Bamban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong>&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/no-politicians-or-police-helped-alice-guo-leave-the-philippines-senator-says\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">No politicians or police helped Alice Guo leave the Philippines, senator says<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Philippine senator proposes increase in police budget to combat offshore gaming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Senator&nbsp;<strong>Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong>&nbsp;has proposed the&nbsp;<strong>Philippine National Police (PNP)<\/strong>&nbsp;be granted more funding for intelligence work to help it tackle offshore gaming operators. He said the PNP\u2019s intelligence fund had decreased from PHP1.356bn (US$23.2m) in 2023 to PHP906.025m (US$15.5m) this year. According to the National Expenditure Program (NEP), funding for 2025 was to be PHP806.025m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gatchalian said: \u201cThe PNP needs funds to gather intelligence, particularly in the fight against offshore gaming operators. This is the time to support the PNP in gathering more intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He added: \u201cGiven the President\u2019s directive to\u00a0terminate all offshore gaming operations in the country by the end of the year, law enforcement agencies such as the PNP need to double down on their efforts to flush out all offshore gaming operators, particularly those that are involved in illegal activities such as kidnap-for-ransom, human trafficking, and online scamming.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guo was accused of using her position to influence public opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777019844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) has identified suspended mayor Alice Guo as a potential \"agent of influence\" linked to illegal offshore gaming operators (POGOs), citing her ability to leverage her position for beneficial outcomes. Concurrently, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has proposed increased funding for the Philippine National Police (PNP) to combat illegal POGOs, aligning with a presidential directive to terminate all such operations by year-end.","focusai_entities":"Alice Guo, Francisco Acedillo, Sherwin Gatchalian, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality, Philippine National Police (PNP), House","focusai_location":"Philippines, Bamban, Tarlac, Tangerang City, Jakarta","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Termination Impact?","query":"What are the projected economic and operational impacts on legitimate POGO operators and their B2B suppliers following the presidential directive to terminate all offshore gaming operations in the Philippines by year-end?"},{"label":"Foreign Investment Implications?","query":"How might the identification of an 'agent of influence' and the intensified crackdown on illegal POGOs affect foreign direct investment and the overall business climate for iGaming and related sectors in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[4138],"class_list":["post-777021028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777021028"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777021041,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777021028\/revisions\/777021041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777019844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777021028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777021028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777021028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}