The mess is getting complicated as the senate investigation on the involvement of suspended mayor Alice Guo in the illegal operations of online gambling. Lately, the National Bureau of Investigation in collaboration with the Philippine Statistics Authority that over one thousand two hundred fabricated certificates of live birth which were mostly issued to Chinese criminal elements.
The increased number from the previous two hundred is an indicator that the fabrication of such certificates of live births involves key officials of the local civil registrar in purportedly one municipality in Davao. It is surprising that the fabrication of such documents would be in Mindanao when the operations of online gambling are in Bamban and recently in Porac, both in Pampanga province.
As bared by the senate committee conducting the investigation, the cost of the fabricated certificates of live birth is three hundred thousand pesos. It puts the entire fabrication racket at a huge take of about three hundred thousand six hundred pesos. Such huge amount would unbelievably be assumed to have gone into a single official. With this development, it would not be far for the investigating committee to delve into the lifestyles of the officials in the said municipality. Should that happen, the investigation would depart from the main issue involving the suspended mayor. It would require more time to dig into the assets of officials involved in the fabrication of the documents that allowed Chinese people with criminal records to do their shenanigans in our country.
Amidst all these developments, the house of representatives is also conducting its investigation in aid of legislation, on issues purportedly connected with the parcels of land where the buildings were erected which houses the illegal gambling operations. The resource persons had been following the lead of the suspended mayor of being forgetful and making blatant lies before the investigating committee.
So appalling are the hearings that the resource persons who are all placed under oath, would be contradicting each other before the committee. The lies are very clear even to the citizens following the hearings but the liars are being given ample opportunity to evade from being cited in contempt. All that had been issued are warnings that the resource persons are under oath and could be cited in contempt at the discretion of the committee.
In the meantime, the main subject of the investigation is having a good time evading the authorities. The cost of the surveillance is too high that the meager resources of government could place in more important needs of taxpayers. It would not be surprising if in the coming days, the investigation committee would discover more intertwined mess that would bare the suspended mayor’s links.
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