A Philippine mayor is facing accusations of acting as a pawn of China as a territorial dispute between the two countries escalates.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos told reporters this week: “No one knows her. There are questions about where she came from. So there are questions about her nationality, so we are working with the Immigration Department to investigate.” “There is,” he said.
Bambang Mayor Alice Guo, 35, is at the center of a potential scandal over her origins and allegiance. She grew up on a pig farm and she showed no concerns until a strange discovery was made in her town this month, the BBC reported.
Law enforcement agencies say that an online casino named Philippine Offshore Gambling Operator (Pogo) located in Bambang is actually acting as a front for a “fraud center” that involved 700 people, including more than 200 Chinese nationals. It was discovered that a nearby employee was posing as a “fraud center.” Online enthusiast. ”
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Bambang Mayor Alice Guo speaks with local police in a photo posted on her official Facebook page earlier this week. (Facebook)
A raid on the site in March rescued all the workers who had claimed they had been forced to work for the owners. The center attempted to defraud victims with a “pig butchering” scam. The scammer adopted a false identity to gain trust and then manipulated the victim into romantic relationships in order to steal from them.
Mr. Guo found himself involved in the incident when it was revealed that he owned half of the land where Pogo was located.
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The country’s Senate took her to a hearing and asked her to testify. In addition to selling her land before her mayoral run two years ago, she also sold her assets, including her helicopter and Ford Expedition, she claimed. Both were registered in her name but are said to have been sold before that. Her campaign was reported by the South China Morning Press.
There were other incidents of misconduct that raised concerns about her condition. She registered with the election commission to vote in Bambang a year ago, when she ran for mayor and won.
Alice Guo (far right) attends an event for Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. (Facebook)
She also admitted that she only registered her birth certificate with local authorities when she was 17, and said little about her background other than that she was born in a family that raised pigs and was home-schooled.
Senators criticized Ms Guo for giving “opaque” responses to questions about her background, with one senator asking whether she was a Chinese asset. She fired back, saying she was “not a toddler, and I am not the guardian of Pogos.”
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China and the Philippines are locked in a new territorial dispute as the Chinese government seeks to tighten its control over the waters surrounding the Philippines, sparking clashes between the Chinese Coast Guard and Filipino fishermen.
On May 4, the Philippine supply ship Unayza (green) was hit by a water cannon explosion as it attempted to enter the Second Thomas Reef, locally known as Ayungin Reef, injuring several crew members, after which the Chinese Coast Guard boat moved near the Philippine supply ship Unayza (green). March 5, 2024, in the disputed South China Sea. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Last year, there were a number of near-collisions between the two coast guard forces near No. 2 Thomas Reef. Philippine authorities protested China’s use of water cannons and military lasers.
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China claimed Scarborough Shoal in 2012, after which the Philippines launched a formal protest in a UN-backed tribunal. The 2016 ruling was against China, rejecting Beijing’s claims on “historical grounds,” but Beijing rejected the arbitration and its results.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
