Scandal deepens around Philippine fugitive mayor Alice Guo with freezing of assets

Officials say Guo is hiding from arrest as she faces a widening money-laundering probe into her links to illegal offshore gaming operations

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Bamban Mayor Alice Guo. Photo: Facebook/AliceLealGuo

Published: 3:56pm, 16 Jul 2024Updated: 4:55pm, 16 Jul 2024

The controversy surrounding Alice Guo, a fugitive mayor in the Philippines who has been accused of being a Chinese spy, has deepened as she faces a widening money-laundering probe linked to raided offshore gaming operators.

A lawmaker last Friday claimed billions in “dirty money” had passed through the accounts of Guo, the mayor of Bamban in Tarlac province, as the government’s Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) ordered her and her associates’ assets frozen.

The AMLC suspended Guo’s assets, as well as those of business partners – Huang Zhiyang, a fugitive in China, and Lin Baoying, a Chinese national also charged with money laundering in Singapore – totalling 90 bank accounts, 27 land titles, and other high-value items such as luxury vehicles and a helicopter.

Guo, who missed several Senate hearings probing criminality among Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), was ordered by the Supreme Court to be arrested but was nowhere to be found after police swarmed her residence in Bamban on Saturday. Officials say she is currently in hiding to evade law enforcement.

The Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) fingerprint examination found Mayer Guo’s fingerprints were identical to those of a woman named Guo Hua Ping, her suspected real identity, who came to the country as a Chinese national teen in 2003 with a Chinese passport. Photo: Facebook/AliceLealGuo

The investigation into Guo began after police raided a Pogo compound in Bamban in March and rescued hundreds of trafficked workers and seized equipment used for scamming from the facility, which was built on land partially owned by the mayor.

Guo has insisted that she is a Filipino citizen but the National Bureau of Investigation said her fingerprints matched those of Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national who entered the country as a teenager, adding fuel to the rumours that she was a Chinese spy or asset.