In the Philippines, a parliamentary inquiry turns into a manhunt. “Show yourself! “Hiding won’t erase the truth”says Risa Hontiveros, the senator in charge of the investigation into Alice Guo, the mayor of a small town in Tarlac province accused of being a Chinese spy. The police have not been able to find her at any of her known addresses. She is on the run.
Her story is the stuff of a TV series. Because questioning her Chinese affiliation is not the only thing she is accused of. In March, a gigantic scam center was dismantled in her town, Bamban. The complex, disguised as an online casino for a Chinese clientele, was built on land partly owned by Alice Guo. However, she claims to have sold her shares before her election in 2022.
The Senate orders Alice Guo’s arrest after she snubbed two subpoenas. But on the day the arrest warrant is signed, the mayor mysteriously declares on Facebook that she will be “temporarily” absent. “Sorry for not being physically present with each of you, she adds for her constituents. I miss you all.”
The councilor denies any treason or criminal involvement, and says she was raised on the farm by a Chinese father and a Filipino mother. Her unclear medical records (her birth certificate was not registered until she was 17) are attributed to her home birth and isolated childhood.
An argument that does not convince Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, a member of the investigation committee. He relies on immigration records to affirm that Alice Guo is of Chinese nationality and that her real name is Guo Hua Ping. “She is hiding to avoid being arrested, he told local radio, Our teams will continue to track her down.”
This case is shaking the Philippines, as Tensions between Manila and Beijing crystallize around contested resources in the South China Sea and a new, less Sinophile president.
Human trafficking and torture
Alice Guo’s lawyer, Nicole Jamilia, says her client will cooperate with police. In addition to the parliamentary investigation, Guo is facing another corruption case that led to her suspension.
Investigators and parliamentarians alike wonder how she could not know about the scam center discovered in the online casino in her town. The police rescued nearly 700 victims there, including 202 Chinese. They were held captive and forced to play fake lovers on the internet to extort money, often from Chinese people. A Vietnamese man who managed to escape and alert the police had signs of torture all over his body.
Spread over eight hectares, the complex was a small city within a city, with its shops, its swimming pool, and even its hospital to offer cosmetic surgery to mafia fugitives. The exploited worked at long rows of white tables and were housed in dormitories.
The scam hub illustrates how online casinos can be used as fronts for scams, human trafficking, money laundering, cryptocurrency fraud and other criminal activities in Southeast Asia. The gangs that operate them flourished during the tenure of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is close to Beijing. But the casinos are under increased scrutiny under the current head of state, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Alice Guo will therefore not only have to prove her Philippine citizenship, without which she would no longer have the right to exercise her mandate, but also answer the accusations which link her to the Bamban scam center.
“I’m not that powerful. I’m a simple citizen of a second-tier municipality, I don’t have those kinds of connections, she defends herself. I am told that I am at risk of deportation. My own mother left me, and now my country is turning its back on me too? She plans to run for re-election next year.
Source: www.slate.fr
