THE attempt by dismissed mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac to evade facing whatever criminal charges have been filed against her in Philippine courts and the Senate has become an opportunity for the government to revisit its operational systems.
Some government agencies need to change their everyday procedures, not to mention their leaders or senior officials, in the light of the many flaws that have been discovered in relation to the ease by which Guo was able to use the southern backdoor to escape.
Among these offices are the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), the Philippine Coast Guard, and the Bureau of Immigration.
The first change to be noted is the firing by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco who may have no direct participation in Alice Guo’s caper but had to take the blame under the tradition of command responsibility.
`The sad thing here is that the revision of the circular could have been made even before the Guo incident…’
It stands to reason that most government bodies concerned, not only the ones enumerated above, are rushing their efforts to patch up any hole or crack in the wall of efficiency in all their systems. Loopholes have to be combed, found, and identified before any restoration can be made.
One such agency is the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) of the Department of Transportation, which is now looking at revising its rules to include non-common carriers in its pre-departure inspection. It can be recalled that Alice Guo confirmed in a Senate committee hearing that she and her group left for Malaysia via a private yacht and two boats last July.
Her case was brought up by Senate minority leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III during Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate subcommittee on finance on the proposed budget of the Department of Transportation for 2025. Pimentel asked the PCG if it has a role in the various transfers of Guo’s party from a yacht, to a small boat, to a big boat on their way to Malaysia. The senator wanted to know: should the Coast Guard have intercepted them?
In response, PCG Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan pointed out that based on their memorandum circular on pre-departure inspection (PDI), “vessels which are non-common carriers are not included in the PDI.”
Galvan said that in the light of Alice Guo’s escape, the Coast Guard is revising the circular so that non-common carriers will now be covered in the implementation of the PDI. He promised that the revised rules will be ready for implementation by October, even as their coordination with MARINA is ongoing.
The sad thing here is that the revision of the circular could have been made even before the Guo incident, but government officials were either too timid or too lazy to act.
The fact that the Philippines is an archipelagic country with long, porous borders has been recognized long ago, but it would take incidents like Alice Guo’s failed escape to prompt our officials to act.
