A Philippine court on Thursday sentenced Alice Guo, a Chinese national who fraudulently rose to political office by posing as a Filipina, to life imprisonment for human trafficking. Seven other defendants were also handed life sentences, state prosecutors confirmed.
Guo, 35, who once served as mayor of Bamban in Tarlac province north of Manila, was convicted of running a sprawling Chinese-operated online gambling and scam compound where hundreds of trafficked workers were forced to carry out cyberfraud under threats of torture.
The vast complex—complete with office blocks, luxury villas and a large swimming pool—was raided in March 2024 after a Vietnamese escapee alerted police. The operation exposed one of Southeast Asia’s largest trafficking hubs linked to transnational scam networks.
Hundreds Rescued, Evidence Unearthed
During the 2024 raid, authorities found more than 700 victims, including Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Taiwanese, Indonesians and Rwandans. Documents recovered on site allegedly confirmed that Guo served as president of the company behind the property.
State prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas, speaking outside a Manila regional court, said the swift judgment—delivered just over a year after the raid—was a major win for victims.
“After just over one year, the court delivered a favourable decision. Alice Guo was convicted along with seven co-accused. Life imprisonment,” she said, declining to identify the co-defendants due to confidentiality laws.
According to the Philippine Anti-Organized Crime Commission, Guo and three others were convicted of “organising trafficking”, while four others were found guilty of “acts of trafficking” within the compound.
Fugitive Mayor, Illegal Election
Guo fled the Philippines in mid-2024 but was arrested in Indonesia in September that year and deported to Manila. Though she had been elected mayor of Bamban—the same town where the scam centre operated—a Manila court later ruled she was never eligible for public office, having falsely claimed Filipino citizenship.
Her political rise and subsequent downfall sparked public outrage, intensifying scrutiny of foreign-linked criminal networks in the Philippines. The Chinese embassy declined to comment on the ruling.
A Regional Scam Industry Worth Billions
Southeast Asia has seen a booming rise in scam operations, driven by criminal syndicates that traffic workers across borders. A 2023 UN report estimated losses of up to $37 billion in that year alone, warning global losses could be “much larger.”
In the Philippines, such centres expanded rapidly under former president Rodrigo Duterte, after a government regulator was granted authority to issue nationwide online gambling licences.
Following public fury over the Guo scandal, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in 2024 ordered a nationwide ban on offshore gambling operations and directed all foreign nationals working in these centres to leave the country.
Fallout and Ongoing Investigations
The Guo case continues to expose deep vulnerabilities in the Philippines’ immigration and political systems. Authorities are still investigating potential accomplices and examining how a foreign national was able to obtain identification documents, run a major criminal enterprise, and win an elected office.
For now, the conviction is seen as a decisive step in the government’s intensified crackdown on human trafficking and cyberfraud networks that have proliferated across the region.
