Chinese Woman Jailed for Faking Filipino Nationality to Become Mayor, Convicted of Human Trafficking

A Philippine court on Thursday sentenced Alice Guo, a Chinese national who masqueraded as a Filipina to become mayor, along with seven others, to life imprisonment on human trafficking charges, state prosecutors said

Guo, who served as mayor of Bamban, a town north of Manila, was found guilty of running a Chinese-operated online gambling center where hundreds of people were forced to participate in scams under threat of 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 alerted authorities

More than 700 people including Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Taiwanese, Indonesians, and Rwandans were discovered on the site. Authorities also found documents indicating that Guo was president of the company owning the compound

All eight defendants, including foreign nationals, were handed life sentences, according to state prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas, who declined to name the co-defendants due to confidentiality laws

A spokesman for the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission said Guo and three others were convicted of “organising trafficking,” while four more were found guilty of “acts of trafficking”

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Guo, 35, had fled the Philippines and was arrested in Indonesia in September 2024. Despite being elected mayor, a Manila court ruled in June 2024 that Guo was never eligible for office as a Chinese citizen

The transnational online scam industry has grown significantly in Southeast Asia, with victims losing up to $37 billion in 2023, according to a UN report

Following public outrage over the Guo case, President Ferdinand Marcos banned offshore gambling operations in the Philippines in 2024 and ordered the deportation of foreign nationals working in such centers

Writer : Mweru Mbugua