Chinese woman who faked nationality to become Philippines mayor jailed for human trafficking

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Alice Guo, who served as mayor of a town north of Manila, was found guilty of overseeing a Chinese-operated online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture.

MANILA:

 A Philippine court on Thursday sentenced Alice Guo, a Chinese national who became a mayor while masquerading as a Filipina, and seven others to life in prison on human trafficking charges, state prosecutors said.

Guo, who served as mayor of a town north of Manila, was found guilty of overseeing a Chinese-operated online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture.

The sprawling complex, which included office buildings, luxury villas and a large swimming pool, was raided in March 2024 after a Vietnamese worker escaped and called police.

More than 700 Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Taiwanese, Indonesians and Rwandans were found on site, along with documents allegedly showing that Guo was president of a company that owned the compound.

All eight defendants, some of whom were foreign nationals, were sentenced to life in prison, state prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas said outside a regional courthouse in Manila.

“After over just one year, the court… gave us a favourable decision. Alice (Guo) was convicted along with seven other co-accused. Life imprisonment,” Torrevillas said, declining to name Guo’s co-defendants due to a confidentiality law.

A spokesman for the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission told reporters in a group chat that Guo and three others had been convicted of “organising trafficking” inside the compound.

Four more were found guilty of “acts of trafficking”, the spokesman said.

Guo, 35, was arrested by Indonesian police in September 2024 after fleeing the Philippines.

Although she was elected mayor of Bamban town, the site of the scam centre, a Manila court ruled in June that as a Chinese citizen Guo was never eligible for the position.

The Chinese embassy on Thursday did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The transnational scam industry has ballooned in Southeast Asia in recent years, with thousands of scammers estimated to be involved.

Victims in the wider region were conned out of up to US$37 billion in 2023, according to a UN report, which said global losses were likely “much larger”.

The centres flourished in the Philippines under former president Rodrigo Duterte after the government regulator was given the right to issue operating licences nationwide.

President Ferdinand Marcos announced a ban on offshore gambling operations amid mounting public fury over the Guo case in 2024, ordering foreign nationals working at the sites out of the country.

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Who is Alice Guo, the Chinese woman who disguised as a Filipina to be mayor but actually runs a giant scam center?

Another one, how can he disguise but hold the position of mayor?

Alice Guo could disguise herself as a Filipino and end up becoming a mayor because she was allegedly using a fake identity registered as born “in remote areas” without a clear record, plus the weaknesses of the birth registration system and citizenship documents in the Philippines.

He claimed to be the son of a Filipino farmer, but an investigation later revealed nearly all of his birth documents were suspicious or possibly falsified.

All along as mayor of a city northern Manila, he actually operated an online gambling and fraud center operated by a Chinese syndicate.

In the luxury complex there are offices, villas and swimming pools, more than 700 victims from Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Indonesia to Rwanda are forced to scam 24 hours and if they refuse, they will be tortured.

The case unfolded when a Vietnamese worker managed to escape and reported it to the police, causing a massive raid in March 2024

Finally, a Philippine court sentenced Alice Guo and seven other individuals to life imprisonment for human trafficking charges.

More severely, Alice Guo managed to flee to Indonesia before being arrested in September 2024

UN report says global losses reached USD37 billion in 2023. The Philippine government continues to crack down, including banning offshore gambling operations and deporting foreign nationals involved.

Alice Guo’s story is not just a lie.. It’s a symbol of how scam centers can grow when corruption, politics and cross-country crimes are combined.