How is the Philippines affected by Alice Guo’s case and its connections to Chinese criminals?

On December 13, 2024By Karl

In less than a year, Alice Guo left the little-known mayor of a small town. Philippines It is at the heart of a national security scandal involving suspected espionage and illegal gaming operators, making it a lightning rod amid rising anti-China sentiment in the country.

Filipino Senator Risa Hontiveros described Guo’s situation as “Stranger than fiction” in a speech just days after the ousted mayor and alleged Chinese spy pleaded guilty last week to charges that he misrepresented himself as a Filipino citizen in the 2022 elections.

At a forum held on Tuesday on Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) and their threats to national security, Hontiveros recalled that he participated in a series of inspections at centers near and within Manila before visiting the Zun Yuan compound in Bamban town. capital – where Guo served as mayor.

Hontiveros said he expected the inspection at Bamban to be routine. “But while we were there (the Presidential Commission Against Organized Crime), he shared that they found documents addressed to then-Mayor Alice Guo, utility bills, and salary offers for cleaning staff scattered throughout the building.

“We know that this red flag started the Senate hearing on the Bamban raid, (so we) invited Mayor Guo (to attend the hearing), and there this whole series that really is stranger than fiction began,” he said.

Alice Guo, the fugitive former mayor of Bamban, arrives at a court in Valenzuela City, Philippines, in September. Photo: Reuters

Hontiveros and his team said that as they dug deeper, they discovered Guo’s ties to notorious fugitives such as Chinese national Huang Zhiyang and Zhang Ruijin, the alleged mastermind of Singapore’s biggest money laundering case, as well as Michael Yang, a self-described former economic expert . advisor to former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte A person with ties to the country’s illegal drug trade.