Officials from the Philippines said on Wednesday that a disgraced mayor who was wanted for suspected ties to Chinese criminal networks was apprehended in Indonesia after going on the run for many weeks. They also pledged to pursue legal action against her.
Due to intense suspicion about her genuine identity following raids that uncovered a large scam centre in her hometown manned by hundreds of individuals, Alice Leal Guo—whom Philippine immigration authorities had recognised as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping—left the country in July.
A senate investigation into Guo’s alleged involvement in money laundering, fraud, human trafficking, and illicit gaming activities sparked months of national attention as lawmakers probed deeper into the controversy.
Guo, 34, disappeared, reportedly escaping the nation in a clandestine network of vans and small boats, as pressure mounted on her to explain how, as a rookie politician, she accumulated millions in assets in just two years after being elected to public office.
Authorities suspect she sailed from the Philippines to Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, where she was apprehended by local police early on Wednesday morning.
In a video provided by Philippine authorities, Guo was seen being carried down a staircase by Indonesian authorities in Jakarta’s Tangerang City. Guo was dressed in a baby pink pyjama set and a white jacket.
The president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., praised law enforcement for Guo’s arrest in a video statement uploaded to Facebook.
“Let this serve as a warning to those who attempt to evade justice. Such is an exercise in futility. The arm of the law is long, and it will reach you,” he said.
Guo’s legal team wrote in a statement sent to CNN Thursday that the arrest was a “welcome development” as she would now have the opportunity to “answer the allegations and issues thrown against her.”
“We trust that Alice L. Guo will demonstrate her courage and resilience in the face of adversity,” the David Buenaventura and Ang Law Office said.
Fall from grace
The bespectacled candidate for mayor of Bamban, a small town in Tarlac province approximately 60 miles north of Manila, has long black hair and a radiant grin. The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2022 with the title “Get to know the real Alice Guo.”
She is seen waving to her admirers, who are also wearing her characteristic colour of pink while wearing trousers and a pink polo shirt. The effort proved successful, as Guo was elected.
Her life in the province appeared normal. She may be seen caring for her chicks and eating deep-fried dried fish in the morning, just like a typical Filipino, on her YouTube videos.
However, earlier this year, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) received independent tip-offs from two employees from Malaysia and Vietnam, casting doubt on Guo’s reputation as an energetic, young public servant.
They claimed to have been imprisoned against their will in a building in Bamban, a town of just 78,000 inhabitants and had requested assistance in returning to their home countries.
It was believed that the building housed a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation (POGO), a company that serves gamblers from China, a country where gambling is prohibited. Tens of thousands of migrant labourers found great working opportunities in POGOs up to July.
Nevertheless, more than 800 Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, and other countries who claimed to have been working there against their will were discovered by authorities during their search of the Bamban complex in March.
According to the government-run Philippine News Agency, police discovered guns, cell phones, and scripts for “love scams” that were purportedly used for fraudulent transactions.
In a practice known as “pig-butchering,” or confidence fraud, victims are tricked into sending money by scammers who often masquerade as young women online. This is supposedly how the rescued workers were forced to pose as lovers to get people to donate money.
The Philippine Senate, led by Senator Risa Hontiveros, ordered an investigation into Guo on May 7 in an attempt to learn the truth about the events in Bamban.
According to a Facebook message, before her official account was removed, Guo claimed to be mentally ill and to have received death threats when she failed to appear for at least three of the sessions.
She did not attend the hearings, raids on casino hubs proceeded, and public outrage about POGOs—which have proliferated across the nation—grew.
Investigations into the Bamban complex later revealed purported connections between the mayor and the seedy underworld of gaming establishments, some of which were thought to be used as money-laundering vehicles.
During his address to the country on July 22, President Marcos Jr. emphasised his growing alarm about the proliferation of offshore casinos. He issued the complete prohibition with immediate effect amid a standing ovation from the MPs.
“Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture — even murder,” Marcos said. “The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.”
Suspected ties with China
In light of this increased scrutiny, Filipinos who are fascinated by the mystery have found the May-started Senate investigation into Guo’s potential ties to Chinese criminals to be compulsive viewing.
Lawmakers stated during the hours-long, live-streamed meetings that many details of Guo’s life story did not fit up. The proceedings were filled with a dizzying exchange of questions directed at Guo and her accused accomplices.
Guo stated in her testimony that she was the love child of a Chinese man and a Filipino maid and that she was raised on a livestock farm in the town of Bamban.
Guo is fluent in Tagalog, but she is not proficient in Kapampangan, the local tongue that most people in the area speak. She said she had no childhood acquaintances who could attest to her character and that “Teacher Rubilyn” was the woman who homeschooled her.
Legislators began to suspect that she was acting as an “asset” for Beijing due to her evasive responses when questioned about her Chinese ancestry. Doubts also seemed to be raised by her purported business dealings with foreigners who have criminal histories.
When the Senate investigation discovered that her true identity was “Guo Hua Ping” based on immigration records from 2005, speculation grew more intense. Her fingerprints were later discovered by the National Bureau of Investigation to match those of a Chinese national with the same name.
Documents from the Philippine Senate investigation revealed that Guo had established Baofu Land Development in 2019 with Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying as purported business partners. It was registered to the same large Bamban complex where the workers were found and saved by the police.
Zhang and Lin, her alleged Chinese business partners, are both incarcerated in Singapore for using false passports to launder millions of dollars.
Armed with growing evidence, Guo and 35 other people were accused of laundering over $1.8 million (100 million Philippine pesos) in proceeds from illegal activities. The accusations were brought before the Department of Justice on multiple counts by Philippine law enforcement agencies, which included the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
Additionally, Guo and her associates were sued by the AMLC to surrender assets worth over 6 billion Philippine Pesos ($106 million).
Guo is accused of running scam farm operations under the names of QSeed Genetics, Zun Yuan Technology Inc., Hongshen Gaming Technology Inc., QJJ Farms, and Baofu Land Development Inc. She is also accused of having a sister, Shiela, and a business partner, Cassandra Li Ong.
But Guo had already escaped by the time the charges were brought on August 30.
While stating that Guo would be granted standard legal rights, President Marcos Jr. emphasised that the Philippines would not hold back in pursuing justice and swore to find those who had assisted Guo in her escape.
“We will not allow this to prolong the resolution of the case whose outcome will be a victory for the Filipino people,” he said.
