Who is the infamous Philippine ex-mayor Alice Guo and what is known about her arrest?

Alice Leal Guo (centre), former mayor of Bamban in Philippine's Tarlac province accused of human trafficking and links to Chinese organised crime, is escorted to a press conference in Manila on September 6, 2024, after being deported following her arrest in Indonesia on September 3. Alice Leal Guo, a former mayor of a town north of the capital Manila, has been on the run since she was linked to a Chinese-run online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture. - AFP

MANILA (Reuters): Former Philippines mayor Alice Guo, accused of ties to Chinese criminal syndicates and money laundering, arrived in Manila on Friday on a chartered flight after being deported from Indonesia.

Guo, also known as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, was arrested in the Indonesian city of Tangerang near the capital of Jakarta on Tuesday.

Her case has gripped the Philippines at a time of growing suspicion about China's activities following an escalation of disputes in the South China Sea where the two nations have overlapping claims.

WHO IS ALICE GUO?

Guo ran for mayor of Bamban, an agricultural town north of the capital, as a Philippine citizen in 2022. But law enforcement authorities later found her fingerprints matched those of a Chinese national, Guo Hua Ping.

The Philippine Senate opened a congressional probe into Guo in May, two months after authorities raided a gambling hub catering to offshore clients who are mostly Chinese. The raid uncovered what authorities described as online scams inside a facility built on land that Guo partially owned.

Guo refused to appear at subsequent hearings in June, citing emotional trauma from her previous attendance. That led the senate to cite her in contempt and ordered her arrest.

WHAT VIOLATIONS IS SHE ACCUSED OF?

The Philippines' anti-graft office removed her as mayor in August due to grave misconduct over her alleged ties to illegal gaming operations in Bamban.

The raid on the gambling hub uncovered hundreds of trafficked workers including foreign nationals, which triggered a human trafficking complaint against Guo from an anti-crime commission. Philippine authorities filed several counts of money laundering against Guo and her accomplices last month.

Guo has insisted she is a natural-born Philippine citizen facing "malicious accusations", and had no knowledge of criminality.

HOW DID ALICE GUO ESCAPE THE PHILIPPINES?

Guo fled the country in July, travelling to Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia using her Philippine passport, the Philippine anti-crime agency said.

The former mayor and her two supposed siblings fled the Philippines by boat to Malaysia, Sheila Guo, an alleged accomplice who was arrested earlier in Indonesia, told a Philippine senate hearing last week.

HOW WAS ALICE GUO CAPTURED IN INDONESIA?

The 34-year-old former mayor was apprehended by Interpol Indonesia on Tuesday in Tangerang, Indonesia's immigration agency said in a statement.

From closed-circuit television checks, immigration officers found that a Singaporean national helped Guo book four hotel rooms at a hotel on Indonesia's Batam island for the past three days prior to their arrest on Tuesday.

WHO IS GREGOR HAAS AND WHY IS HE INVOLVED IN THE CASE?

According to reports by Indonesian media, authorities from Jakarta had requested a prisoner swap, where they would get Australian national Gregor Johann Haas who is being held in the Philippines.

Philippine immigration authorities arrested the 46-year-old Haas in May in the city of Bogo in the central province of Cebu.

The arrest was made on account of a standing red notice by Interpol over a criminal case filed against him in Indonesia, the Philippines' immigration bureau said in a statement on May 19.

Indonesian authorities have accused Haas of links to the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel, and an attempt to smuggle into Indonesia in December 2023 a shipment of floor ceramics filled with over five kilograms of methamphetamine.

Haas is detained at an immigration detention facility while awaiting deportation proceedings.

Philippine Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla said on Thursday there was no official request from Indonesian counterparts for a prisoner swap, but he said he is aware of the supposed swap request based on media reports. A prisoner swap request, Remulla said, would go through the foreign ministry unless he is authorised to directly coordinate with his counterparts in Jakarta.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Mikhail Flores) - Reuters