'Chinese spy mayor' wanted by Philippines arrested

Philippine authorities have been pursuing Alice Guo across four countries since she disappeared in July following an investigation into her alleged criminal activities.

She has been accused of protecting online casinos, which were a front for scam centres and human trafficking syndicates in her sleepy pig farming town, Bamban.

Ms Guo denies the allegations. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said she would be flown back to the Philippines as early as Wednesday.

She said she grew up on the family farm with her Chinese father and Filipina mother, but MPs who investigated the scam centre operations said her fingerprints matched a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping and accused her of being a spy who provided cover for criminal gangs.

The dramatic nature of her case, which has since seen her sister arrested and questioned by the Philippine Senate, sparked fury in the country and drew international attention.

Ms Guo's case has played out as the Philippines and China continue to spar over reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea.

China has not commented on the allegations against her.

Authorities believe that Ms Guo slipped past border checks in July and took several boats, crossing neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, on her way to Indonesia, where she was arrested on Tuesday on the western border of the capital Jakarta.

Mr Marcos said her arrest is "a warning to those who attempt to evade justice".

"Such is an exercise in futility. The arm of the law is long and it will reach you," he wrote on Facebook.

A scam centre in a sleepy town

Ms Guo was thrust under the national spotlight after authorities in March uncovered a sprawling scam centre in Bamban that were hiding under online casinos, known locally as Philippine Online Gaming Operations (Pogo).

Pogos cater to clients in the Chinese mainland, where gambling is illegal.

Ms Guo's case confirmed suspicions that Pogos were being used as a front for organised crime and led to Mr Marcos outlawing them in response to public anger.

Pogos flourished under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, whose presidency was marked by close ties with China.

But Mr Marcos reversed the country's foreign policy direction and has cracked down on Pogo-linked crimes since assuming office in 2022.

During the raid in Ms Guo's town, police rescued close to 700 scam centre workers, including 202 Chinese nationals and 73 other foreigners who were forced to pose as online lovers.

A Senate investigation that followed centred on her inability to detect the eight-hectare scam centre despite its location near her office.

Senators also grilled her on her parentage. A relative unknown in local politics, she was elected mayor on her first run for public office, which is rare in areas ruled by political families.

Ms Guo's opaque answers on questions regarding her roots, led some senators to accuse her of being a Chinese "asset" or spy.

She gave a television interview where she attributed her low profile to being her father's illegitimate child with her mum, who is also his maid. She said this forced her to lead a sheltered life in the family farm, until she was elected mayor of Bamban.

But the controversy did not subside and after she refused to appear in subsequent hearings, senators in July ordered her arrest. By that time, however, she had fallen from public view.

Soon after, an anti-graft body removed her from office.

In August, Filipino authorities said she had fled the country undetected and passed through Singapore and Malaysia on her way to Indonesia.

One official said she could be headed for the Golden Triangle, a border region in mainland South East Asia that is a known hideout of organised crime groups.

A furious Mr Marcos then ordered her Philippine passport cancelled and warned then that "heads will roll".

He said Ms Guo's escape "laid bare the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes the people's trust".

-BBC