Analysis: Missing Philippine Mayor's Ties to Chinese Offshore Gambling Rings
A Philippine mayor has gone missing amid an investigation into her ties to illegal Chinese offshore gambling rings. Philippine analyst Brian Doce says a rift between the current and past presidential administrations and their respective approaches to China is behind the investigation.
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00:00So, how did Philippine authorities find out that Alice Goa was faking her Filipino nationality
00:05and is connected to these illegal offshore gambling companies, or POGOs?
00:10She was elected as the mayor of Banban, however, because of the recent raids against these
00:17illegally operating POGOs, the senators found a link that enabled them to investigate more.
00:24One of the personalities that were involved is Mayor Alice Goa.
00:30The discussion also shifted to her real identity, especially with the ongoing rift between the
00:37Marcos and the Duterte coalitions right now.
00:40There is a big push right now to link this case of Mayor Alice Goa with the efforts of
00:47the previous administration to welcome Chinese capital in the Philippines.
00:51What impact will the case of Alice Goa have on Philippine-China tensions?
00:56The first perspective that I can share with that is with the timing.
01:04The Senate hearings regarding her identity happened weeks or a month after a certain
01:13Australian report revealed that these agents are from the party that they're being sent
01:19abroad to police the activities of other overseas Chinese nationals.
01:25And there's this insinuation that they are spies.
01:29That narrative was picked up by certain political factions in the Philippines.
01:35And then we need to understand or recognize that at the end of the day, POGOs are actually
01:42banned in China.
01:44President Xi Jinping himself is clear about that because of, again, the social ills being
01:52brought by these firms towards the Chinese people.
01:56Seeing that both the Philippines and China are working to stop these illegal offshore
02:01gambling companies, how can the two countries cooperate amidst intensifying territorial
02:07disputes in the South China Sea?
02:09We need to approach the ongoing Philippine-China relations as a multifaceted and multilayered
02:17phenomenon.
02:18So, the territorial dispute that we have right now is only one of the layers.
02:24But I believe, as I'm seeing in the ongoing news reports and ongoing activities between
02:30the two states, that other areas of cooperation are still lively.
02:35For example, the Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Agreement signed between
02:40the two states to combat trafficking, etc., science and technology cooperation, and development
02:52cooperation projects.
02:55In those cases, there are other layers and still opportunities for the Philippines and
02:59China to promote cooperation, especially with regards to issues that are concerned
03:06with transnational crime.