World
Fugitive Philippines Mayor Alice Guo Captured in Indonesia
Alice Guo, a former mayor from the Philippine who is thought to have ties to Chinese crime groups, was caught in Indonesia.
The Philippine Senate wants Guo, who is also Chinese and goes by the name Guo Hua Ping, because she refused to go to a congressional investigation into her alleged crime ties, according to the Ministry of Justice.
She has denied the claims, saying that she is a natural-born Filipino citizen and that the charges are “malicious.”
Police in Indonesia have confirmed that Ms. Guo is currently in their custody, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
Guo was caught in Tangerang City in Jakarta at 11:58 p.m. on Tuesday. He used to be the mayor of Bamban town, which is about 100 km (62 miles) north of Manila. Asian media shared a video on X that showed police agents leading her up a white-walled staircase.
In the Philippines, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and other law enforcement agencies charged Guo and 35 others with money laundering multiple times with the Department of Justice last month.
The AMLC says that Guo and her crime partners laundered more than 100 million pesos ($1.8 million) in stolen money.
Lawyer Stephen David, who is officially Guo’s lawyer, did not reply right away to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.
Al Jazeera news said that Justice Secretary Boying Remulla said in a statement, “The arrest of Alice Guo is a testament to the tireless efforts of our law enforcement agencies and the strength of international cooperation in bringing fugitives to justice.”
People removed Guo from her job as mayor, and she left the country in July, using her Philippine visa to go to Malaysia, then Singapore, and finally Indonesia.
In May, two months after police raided a casino in Bamban town and found scams being run from a building on land partly owned by the mayor, the Senate began an investigation into her activities.
Public outrage followed the finding, and later, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. banned online gaming companies because he thought they had ties to organised crime.
Marcos also said she would go after those who “helped her escape.”
The government thinks that several hundred illegal online gambling businesses may be running scam sites right in front of them.
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