By Jose Cielito Reganit
MANILA – The final public hearing of the House Quad Committee on Monday ended with a searing indictment of Chinese criminal infiltration into the Philippines and the complicity of Filipino officials who enabled it.
“The Chinese raped us but we helped them rape us,” Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said as he opened the 15th hearing of the Quad Comm, composed of four House panels — Dangerous Drugs, Public Order and Safety, Human Right, and Public Accounts.
The joint investigation focused on the links between Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), human trafficking, drug smuggling and extrajudicial killings (EJKs) during the bloody war on drugs by the Duterte administration.
Barbers, co-chair of the Quad Comm, described the committee’s findings as “almost unbelievable,” comparing them to “mafia movies” and “Hollywood and James Bond movies combined,” but “with one cohesive plot” that now lays bare a network of criminality involving Chinese nationals and Filipino collaborators.
“The words betrayal, traitors, unpatriotic are not enough to describe the despicable, wicked and perhaps even evil acts of collaboration that some of our leaders, elected officials and civil servants extended to these criminals,” the chair of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs said.
He blamed the rise of POGOs on Executive Order (EO) No. 13, which was issued during the Duterte administration, which allowed offshore gaming operators to flourish under the guise of economic growth.
“POGO hubs have evolved into breeding grounds for transnational crime — human trafficking, crypto scams, money laundering, identity fraud, torture, and even murder,” he lamented.
Among those named was former Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, who was unmasked as Guo Hua Ping – allegedly a Chinese national who infiltrated the country’s political system using fraudulent documents.
Charges have been filed against key POGO figures, including Guo, Katherine Cassandra Ong, and former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
Barbers said the evidence pointed to “a well-coordinated Chinese criminal syndicate operating through layers of corporate entities, nominee shareholders, and corrupt public officials, with ties to major drug cases.
He linked the syndicate to figures such as Michael Yang, a presidential adviser of former president Rodrigo Duterte, and Wei Xiong Lin.
“The duty now falls upon us to ensure that these findings lead to real consequences. We must demand accountability — not only for the victims of extrajudicial killings and those exploited by POGO-linked criminal networks — but for the Filipino people, whose trust in their institutions has been deeply shaken,” Barbers said.
Meanwhile, House Human Rights Committee chair Bienvenido Abante Jr. said the 15 hearings of the Quad Comm are “just the beginning of justice, reform and national repentance.”
“What began as a search for answers has evolved into a reckoning. Through these hearings, we have not merely uncovered wrongdoing; we have brought these evils into the light, where they can no longer hide behind rank, uniform, or position,” Abante said in a statement delivered by Lanao del Sur 1st District Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong.
He noted that the committee’s work has produced several key measures now pending before Congress.
These include House Bill No. 10986, which classifies and penalizes extrajudicial killings as heinous crimes and provides reparations to victims’ families; House Bill No. 10987, which seeks to ban all forms of offshore gaming operations and has been included among the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council’s (LEDAC) priority measures; House Bill No. 11043, which allows civil forfeiture of real estate unlawfully acquired by foreign nationals; House Bill No. 11117, which provides for the administrative cancellation of birth certificates fraudulently obtained by foreigners; and House Bill No. 10998, which punishes conspiracies and proposals to commit espionage. (PNA)
