Fury as suspected China spy flees the Philippines
A former mayor accused of espionage for China and ties to criminal syndicates has fled the Philippines, igniting public outrage.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. warned on Wednesday that “heads will roll” after officials revealed that Alice Guo had left the country undetected a month earlier, traveling to Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Marcos stated that her escape “exposed the corruption that weakens our justice system and erodes public trust.”
Guo has been out of the public eye since July when a Senate panel probing her alleged connections to scam centers and online casinos ordered her arrest for refusing to testify.
She is accused of enabling human trafficking syndicates and scam centers to operate under the guise of online casinos in her town.
Senators have also accused her of being a Chinese operative or spy, pointing to her vague responses to questions regarding her Chinese heritage.
Criminal charges have been filed against her by the police, and the Philippines’ anti-graft agency recently dismissed her from office for “grave misconduct.”
Guo has denied all accusations.
According to the Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration, she “illegally” left the country, evading border checks, and her international travel was only discovered through intelligence sources.
Mr Marcos said he would “expose the culprits who have betrayed the people’s trust and aided in her flight.”
He also ordered the cancellation of Ms Guo’s Philippine passport.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who has been leading the investigation on the Philippines’ scam centers since May, said it is unacceptable for Ms. Guo to slip past immigration checks.
“The nerve of this fake Filipino, using a Philippine passport to escape,” she said.
Ms Guo came under scrutiny in March after authorities uncovered a huge scam center and human trafficking operation in her sleepy town of Bamban, north of Manila.
The illegal operations were hidden in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, or “Pogo” firms, that stood on land owned by Ms Guo’s family.
Before that, Ms Guo was relatively unknown and had not held public office before being elected mayor in 2022. She claims she grew up sheltered in the family’s pig farm in Bamban.
While Pogos are not illegal, they are increasingly being exposed as cover for other crimes. The firms, which mostly cater to mainland Chinese clients, flourished under former president Rodrigo Duterte, who sought close economic and political ties with Beijing.
But Mr Duterte’s successor, Mr Marcos, reversed the country’s foreign policy direction and has cracked down on Pogo-linked crimes since assuming office in 2022.
Nationalist sentiment is also growing in the Philippines, as its dispute with China over reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea continues to fester.
Earlier this week, Manila and Beijing traded fresh allegations of ship ramming in the resource-rich waters.
