Alice Guo, former Mayor of Bamban in Philippines' Tarlac province, attending a hearing at the Senate in Manila over accusations of human-trafficking and links to Chinese organised crime. Photo / Jam Sta Rosa, AFP
Alice Leal Guo made history in 2022 when she became the first female mayor of Bamban, a rural town in the Tarlac province north of Manila.
For the first two years of her mayoralty, Guo - who pledged to boost education and health outcomes in the small community - was well-liked there, according to local news reports.
She held donation drives for students returning to school and passed out food to families in need.
The then-35-year-old documented her time in office on social media, posing for pictures with constituents as she broke ground on a new development or honoured the teachers in her 80,000-person community.
Guo’s ascendancy came to an abrupt halt in March 2024 when officials raided an online gaming compound near Bamban’s town hall, where the mayor’s office is located, after workers had complained of mistreatment and false imprisonment.
The early morning raid would set off a firestorm over gambling, exploitation, and espionage - and result in Guo’s imprisonment months later. She was found guilty of human trafficking last Friday.
“This case provided a much-needed wake-up call for Philippine law enforcement,” said Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at De La Salle University in Manila.
There are roughly 400 illegal scam centres, known as Philippine offshore gaming operations, scattered across the country, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The centres, which proliferated during the coronavirus pandemic and cater to clients in China - where gambling is illegal - have been linked to human-trafficking, sexual exploitation and organised crime.
Investigators began to suspect that the Baofu Land Development compound located in Bamban was a gaming facility after a Vietnamese worker escaped the complex in February and a Malaysian worker told authorities he was being held there against his will, according to the government-run Philippine News Agency.
When authorities descended upon the sprawling 36-building complex that March, they found more than 800 Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese and other nationals working there in abysmal conditions, according to the news agency.
Investigators also discovered “love scam” scripts, firearms and mobile phones used for scam transactions.
Authorities seized documents indicating that Guo was president of the company that owned the compound, according to local news reports.
The discovery prompted Philippine lawmakers to open an inquiry into the Baofu gaming operation. For weeks, members of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality grilled Guo about her ties to the gambling centre during hours-long televised hearings.
Guo denied involvement in the enterprise.
“I did not own any of the villas inside the compound. In fact, I didn’t see the completion of the construction of the villas [there] after I divested my shares at Baofu,” Guo said during the hearing, the Manila Times reported at the time.
“This was issued before I became Mayor of Bamban, and I no longer had any participation [with Baofu] after that,” Guo said.
Lawmakers began to probe Guo’s personal life when she appeared to have difficulty answering questions about her childhood, including about her birth certificate, parentage and education.
Guo told lawmakers that her father was a Chinese national, even though her father is listed as Filipino on her birth certificate.
Guo also said that her mother was a Filipina woman named “Amelia Leal” - though there are no records indicating that she ever existed, according to local news reports.
“I know all the politicians from Tarlac. No one knows her. That’s why we are wondering where she came from. How did this happen?” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos jnr told reporters in May.
As questions about her identity and connections to Chinese organised crime swirled, officials began to raise concerns about espionage.
“Is this mayor, who was born on a farm, taught by literally one person from kinder to high school, then didn’t go to college, a Chinese spy? A big-time money launderer? An enabler of scams and human trafficking? None of the above? One of the above? Or all of the above?” Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros, who spearheaded the Senate investigation into Guo, asked at the start of a hearing in late May.
Then, in June, Philippine officials announced that Guo’s fingerprints matched those of a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping.
“This confirms what I have suspected all along. ‘Mayor Alice’ is a fake Filipino - or should I say, Guo Hua Ping, is a Chinese masquerading as a Filipino citizen to facilitate crimes being committed by [the centre],” Hontiveros said in a statement obtained by the Manila Times.
Guo, who had been expelled from her political party earlier that year, was removed from office in August.
By the time law enforcement officials filed money laundering charges against Guo, accusing her and 35 others of laundering over 101 million Philippine pesos, or US$1.7m, the disgraced former mayor had already fled the country.
Guo was tracked in Malaysia and Singapore before being arrested in Indonesia in September.
Philippine authorities charged Guo with human-trafficking two weeks later and voided her birth certificate. The Pasig Regional Trial Court in Manila found her guilty of the charges a year later last week. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of 2 million pesos, or US$34,000.
“The case of Alice Guo simply shows how deep-rooted espionage activities are in the country,” said McLain Gill, the lecturer in Manila.
The Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission, which led the Bamban raid, welcomed the court’s ruling.
“This eagerly awaited ruling is not only a legal victory but also a moral one,” the group said in a statement.
“It delivers justice to victims, reaffirms the Government’s united stance against organised crime, and marks a defining moment in the country’s fight against large-scale trafficking and online scam syndicates.
“The court’s promulgation on November 20, 2025, makes it clear that Guo’s power, wealth, and public persona were built entirely on human-trafficking, online scam operations, and a fabricated identity,” the group added.
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