There was a past mayor of the Philippines who was thought to be a Chinese spy. He was caught after months on the run. Her name is Alice Guo, and she used to be the disgraced mayor of the Philippine town of Bamban.
She is accused of spying for China under a fake name and being part of a criminal group that launders money, smuggles people, and runs international scams. Guo was arrested in Indonesia on Tuesday. She had fled as the probe against her sped up.
The identity of Guo was made public at a time when ties between China and the Philippines are already very tense because of China’s ongoing aggression in the South China Sea.
The news that Chinese spies had gotten into the Philippine government is likely to make things worse and hurt people’s views of China. People from all over the country are already interested in Guo’s story.
What is Alice Guo being accused of?
Guo was elected mayor of Bamban because she was seen as a young, lively public worker, but her popularity has quickly dropped since then. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) was told about the two workers from Malaysia and Vietnam who were being held against their will in a Bamban building. This was the start of the fall.
Since China doesn’t allow gambling, the building was thought to be a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation (POGO), which lets Chinese people play games. According to the story, the authorities found that more than 800 people, some from China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, were being held there against their will.
The police said they had found cell phones, guns, and scripts for “love scams” at that spot, according to the report. As a result, the investigation found that the center was running a worldwide scam in which people were forced to pretend to be lovers in order to get people to give money by pretending to be young women online.
According to BBC, the Philippine Senate started an investigation into the case. Because the center was close to Mayor Guo’s office, the investigation also looked into her role in the matter. During the investigation, Guo withdrew from public view as more and more people wanted to know how she got so rich in just two years after becoming mayor.
A report from the BBC says that Indonesian officials say she fled on several boats and went through Malaysia and Singapore before entering Indonesia.
Alice Guo claimed to be a native of China
Guo was given a warrant by the Senate for what she did after she ignored their call. But she was gone by that time. As the probe went on, the police learned that Guo was Chinese and that Alice Guo was not her real name.
CNN said that Guo’s fingerprints in government records matched those of a Chinese citizen with the same name. Immigration records showed that her real name was “Guo Hua Ping.”
Another piece of evidence backing the idea that Guo was a Chinese spy was the fact that the fraud center for Chinese citizens was run by Guo and another Chinese person working together.
The investigation by the Senate found that Guo and two other Chinese people owned Baofu Land Development. This company was formed in 2019 and had its headquarters at the scam center’s address.