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Embattled Philippine mayor Alice Guo explains evasiveness over mysterious past: ‘I’m not a spy, I’m a love child’
- In a televised interview, Guo revealed that she was an abandoned child of a domestic helper and a man who was a Chinese citizen
- Questions have been raised about her possible links to a Philippine offshore gaming operator allegedly helmed by a Chinese criminal
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In a plot twist seemingly ripped from a Philippine telenovela, an embattled mystery mayor accused of being a Chinese spy has claimed she was evasive about her life to hide the “painful” truth that she was an abandoned illegitimate child.
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Alice Leal Guo, 38, mayor of Bamban town, on Monday addressed the media amid mounting controversy over her background, insisting in Tagalog: “I’m not a spy. I am a Filipino, I love my country.” In a public statement, she added: “I am a love child of my beloved father and our housekeeper [kasambahay].”
National security fears in the Philippines are mounting with Manila locked in a months-long territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea.
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The suspicions have been fuelled by recent cases of Chinese nationals discovered to be on an auxiliary roster of the Philippine coastguard, a surge in Chinese students in the northern province of Cagayan and a wiretapping saga centred on a top Filipino admiral, casting the spotlight on military personnel with ties to China.
Guo, who won the 2022 election on her first attempt and with no previous political experience, wrote in her certificate of candidacy that she was born in the town of Tarlac in the province of the same name. In an interview with TV Patrol, she admitted she was an abandoned child of a domestic helper and a man who was a Chinese citizen. Guo, 38, has yet to reveal the nationality of her mother.
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