A former Philippine mayor who was on the run for weeks after being accused of spying for China has been arrested in Indonesia.
Philippine authorities have been pursuing Alice Guo throughout 4 international locations even since she disappeared in July following an investigation into her alleged legal actions.
She has been accused of defending on-line casinos, which had been a entrance for rip-off centres and human trafficking syndicates in her sleepy pig farming city, Bamban.
Ms Guo denies the allegations. Philippine officers mentioned they had been co-ordinating with their Indonesian counterparts for her return to the Philippines “on the soonest doable time”.
The previous mayor mentioned she grew up on the household farm along with her Chinese language father and Filipina mom, however MPs who investigated the rip-off centre operations accused her of being a Chinese language nationwide named Guo Hua Ping, and a spy who supplied cowl for legal gangs.
The dramatic nature of her case, which has since seen her sister arrested and query earlier than by the Philippine Senate, sparked fury within the nation and drew worldwide consideration.
Authorities imagine that Guo slipped previous border checks in July and took a number of boats, crossing neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, on her approach to Indonesia, the place she was arrested on Tuesday on the western border of the capital Jakarta.
Whereas on-line casinos or Philippine On-line Gaming Operations should not unlawful, they’re more and more being uncovered as cowl for different crimes.
The corporations, which largely cater to mainland Chinese language shoppers, flourished beneath former president Rodrigo Duterte, who sought shut financial and political ties with Beijing.
However Mr Duterte’s successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, reversed the nation’s overseas coverage course and has cracked down on Pogo-linked crimes since assuming workplace in 2022.
