Sister and colleague of fugitive Filipino ex-mayor Alice Guo arrested in Indonesia

Indonesian authorities have arrested the sister and another known acquaintance of Alice Guo, the fugitive former Philippine mayor accused of being a Chinese spy, days after evidence emerged suggesting Guo fled the country in July.

The Philippine Department of Justice confirmed on Thursday that the individuals in Indonesian custody are Cassandra Li Ong, who has been linked to a raid on a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) in Pampanga, and Sheila Guo, the sister of the former mayor.

The arrest of Ong and Sheila comes just days after Philippine authorities reported that Guo had arrived in Indonesia via the island of Batam over the weekend, where the former mayor is reportedly still in hiding.

Guo was the mayor of Bamban, a town in Tarlac province. She first came under investigation after she was linked to a Pogo raid in Tarlac by authorities in March.

“We have found the connection between Alice Guo and Cassandra Li Ong, which means that the Bamban and Porac (Pogos) are closely related,” Justice Minister Jesus Crispin Remulla told reporters.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Law and Human Rights said immigration officials in Batam had flagged the two as “suspicious foreigners” in Batam, prompting them to investigate. They discovered that Ong and Sheila were both named subjects in a letter from the Philippine government informing other countries about Guo’s case.

Ong and Sheila returned to the Philippines later on Thursday, the country’s immigration agency confirmed.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is leading the Senate hearings into Guo’s case, previously posted a video on her social media channels showing Ong and Sheila Guo in custody, along with a message praising Indonesian authorities for their decisive response.

Guo had previously come under fire during a Senate hearing over her ties to the Pogo robberies in Tarlac, where authorities found evidence of criminal activity. Agents also discovered a bank statement and a vehicle registered in Guo’s name during the raid, and later discovered that the mayor partially owned the land on which the complex was built.

Officials previously suspected Guo of involvement in the Lucky South 99 Pogo complex in Pampanga, where authorities rescued nearly 200 foreign and local workers and found evidence of human trafficking, torture and fraud activities.

Guo was also questioned about her Filipino nationality, as she could not provide documentation such as school reports and a hospital birth certificate.

The Philippine Senate later issued an arrest warrant for Guo for failing to show up for court in recent years. She also filed a qualified complaint of human trafficking with the Department of Justice, which is still pending with local prosecutors.

But according to information from the Immigration Bureau, Guo had already arrived in Malaysia on July 18 and traveled to Singapore shortly after to meet her family.

“According to my source, Alice Guo went to Singapore where she met her parents, Lin Wen Yi and Guo Jian Zhong. The couple flew out of China on July 28 and apparently had a reunion with Wesley Guo and Cassandra Ong,” Hontiveros said Monday.

Hontiveros also confirmed that the passports of the fugitive mayor, her siblings and Ong had been reported to Interpol’s Philippine Center for Transnational Crime.

On Tuesday, the Immigration Bureau said Guo may have evaded travel controls and left the country illegally, saying no record of her departure remained, despite the bureau issuing an immigration warning bulletin asking authorities to monitor her whereabouts.

Immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval said Guo could have used a private jet or “taken the route that many human smugglers illegally abuse, crossing the borders into our seas to the south if she could have gotten a boat or yacht to Malaysia.”

Marcos Jnr ordered the closure of Pogos in June after numerous reports of crime linked to the offshore companies, which typically serve Chinese customers abroad.