Former Mayor Alice Guo Linked to Chinese Criminal Gangs

Former Philippine mayor Alice Guo arrived in Manila early Friday morning after being deported from Indonesia, accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates and laundering more than 100 million pesos.

She is also known as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping. She was arrested by Indonesian authorities on Wednesday after leaving the Philippines in July. Guo is wanted by the Philippine Senate after she refused to appear before a congressional investigation into her alleged criminal ties.

Philippine law enforcement agencies have filed several money laundering charges against Guo and 35 others with the Department of Justice.

Guo, who says she is a natural-born Filipino citizen, has denied the allegations, calling them malicious. She was deported from Indonesia for violating immigration laws, Jakarta’s immigration office said Thursday.

The former mayor arrived in Manila on a private plane, flanked by Philippine law enforcement officials, including the country’s Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr., who led her handover from Indonesian authorities in Jakarta on Thursday.

“I have received death threats and I am asking for help (from the Philippine authorities),” Guo said shortly after arriving in Manila.

Investigation ongoing

The Senate launched an investigation into Guo in May, following a March raid by law enforcement on a casino in the city of Bamban, where she was mayor. The raid revealed what they called a scam run from a facility built on land partly owned by Guo.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged Guo to reveal how offshore gaming operators had engaged in criminal activity. Marcos banned the online gambling industry in July.

“It won’t help her at all to be evasive,” Marcos told reporters. Guo is scheduled to appear before the Senate on Monday when the investigation resumes.

Guo became mayor of Bamban town in Tarlac province in the northern Philippines in 2022. She ran as a Filipino citizen, but her fingerprints were later found to match those of a Chinese national, Guo Hua Ping said in August, according to the National Bureau of Investigation.

In August, she was ousted as mayor by an anti-corruption agency for serious misconduct over her alleged links to illegal gambling businesses in Bamban.

(with input from Reuters)