[Rappler Investigates] Oh Alice, oh Sara, oh Francis

05.09.2024 12:00

Rappler.com

This week has been action-packed and fast-paced, with events and stories coming in rapid succession. But first things, first. To quickly spare you from good old-fashioned FOMO, be sure to know what “shimenet” means and why it has suddenly become part of the Filipino political lexicon. Just read this: What is ‘shimenet’… in relation to Vice President Sara Duterte and it’ll bring you up to speed with the Gen Zs and avid social media users.

Sara Duterte threatened to again dominate the news cycle the entire week — but there was intervention from Severe Tropical Storm Enteng (Yagi), which has fortunately already exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility but has since developed into a typhoon. Enteng left in its trail at least 15 dead, as of Wednesday afternoon, September 4, a grim reminder that deaths from disasters will be a recurring occurrence unless drastic steps are taken to reverse a worrying trend: metropolitan areas in the country are sinking owing to development and excessive groundwater extraction.

Enteng had barely stepped out of the spotlight when dismissed Bamban mayor and fugitive Alice Guo snatched the limelight all to herself again, giving the countless “shimenet” TikTok creations serious competition. She may not admit it, but Duterte must have been thankful to Guo for that respite.

Reporters Jairo Bolledo and Lian Buan scrambled early morning Wednesday to verify and confirm information that Alice Guo had indeed been arrested by Indonesian police. Confirmation came via the National Bureau of Investigation and then the Department of Justice. It took Indonesian authorities all of 18 days to track down and eventually arrest the woman who drew quick circles around Philippine law enforcement officials — including immigration and the police — who were either blind, incompetent, negligent, or simply complicit. Were they persuaded by extreme generosity on the part of Guo? For how else could one explain their dismal failure to find her over a two-month period and prevent her worthy-of-a-movie escape from the country?

What happens next? According to Lian, there’s chatter that Jakarta is interested in a swap. Local media in Indonesia reported that there had been a request for an exchange involving a suspected Australian drug cartel syndicate member Gregor Johann Haas, who was arrested in Cebu only last May.

The Australian had been on the Interpol’s radar and had been subject of a red alert that stemmed from a drug smuggling case in Indonesia, as reported by weekly magazine Tempo. Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco described Haas in a May 2024 Associated Press report, as a “high-profile fugitive for being an alleged member of the Sinaloa cartel, a large international organized crime syndicate based in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico that specializes in drug trafficking and money laundering activities.”

Could Guo be as high-value as Haas?

ECLIPSED SARA. It’s easy to see how Sara Duterte could be eclipsed by Alice Guo. But the Vice President has had her unforgettable moments, too, in congressional hearings. Her supporters said she was just being authentic and that she “slayed” the inquisitorial lawmakers who were out to get her. Critics were quick to pounce on her bratty and defiant behavior, baring the real Duterte who showed how she regarded herself as the privileged daughter of a former president and as someone whom legislators had no right to question over her use of confidential funds.

Accountability, transparency, checks and balances were just among the most common terms often tossed around during the hearings on the Office of the Vice President’s budget. The spectacle of a provocateur on the offensive, in the midst of members of Congress who were striving hard to remain respectable and restrained before the cameras, was both entertaining and annoying. You can catch the major events here and watch how you’d react:

Will Sara Duterte survive these?

POPE FRANCIS. To keep our sanity, let’s end on a more positive note. Pope Francis has embarked on a two-week trip to the Asia-Pacific region starting with Indonesia (no, it’s not the reason why Indonesian police arrested Alice Guo) in an apparent effort to encourage inter-religious dialogue and help lessen extremism. The journey of the 87-year-old pontiff will also bring him to Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore.

No Philippines in his itinerary this time because, according to religion reporter Paterno Esmaquel II, Pope Francis wants to focus on nations “where the Catholic Church has a smaller flock.” In the Philippines, according to the 2020 Census of Population and Housing, close to 80% of Filipinos belong to the Roman Catholic Church. No stronger evidence is there perhaps of the Philippine Catholic clout than Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle himself, who has been by Francis’ side in most of his travels after being named in 2019 one of two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization. As such, it is Tagle’s job to bring the Catholic faith to places where it’s not yet widely known nor accepted.

In Indonesia, where he will be staying until Friday, September 6, Pope Francis opted for a non-luxe Toyota Innova to bring him around. It comes as no surprise as he was merely being consistent with his past self as Buenos Aires Bishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who took city buses to be “with people where they are.” As the young ones say, “Sana all.” (We wish it were true for all.)

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