Philippines: Former mayor accused of links to Chinese crime has fled the country | World News

Alice Guo, also known as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, arrived in Malaysia from Indonesia on July 18, arrived in Singapore on July 21 and travelled on a ferry from Singapore to Batam in Indonesia on August 18, a spokesman for the Presidential Anti-Organised Crime Commission said, basing his information on immigration records from those countries.

“In the interest of justice,” the Philippine president’s office ordered in an August 20 memo to the justice and foreign ministers “that appropriate steps be taken to cancel” Guo’s passport.

It is unclear on what date she left the Philippines.

However, Guo's lawyer Stephen David insisted that she stay in the Philippines and denied the allegations against her.

“As we have no further evidence that she has actually left the country, we continue to rely on our client's assurances,” David said in a statement, without providing details.

Indonesian immigration authorities declined to confirm the travel information, saying the data was confidential. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it had been contacted by Philippine authorities about the case.

Guo has a Senate arrest warrant for refusing to appear at hearings investigating her alleged ties to Chinese crime syndicates – a case that has gripped the nation amid tensions between Manila and Beijing.

The investigation began in May after authorities raided a casino in Guo's sleepy farming town of Bamban in March, uncovering fraud, authorities said, from a facility built on land partly owned by the former mayor.

Guo, who was recently removed from office by the Ombudsman for serious misconduct, has denied links to criminals and said she is a natural-born Filipino citizen. She has written to the Senate saying she has been the subject of “malicious accusations.”

Her case comes at a time when the Philippines is becoming increasingly suspicious of China's activities due to an escalating dispute over reefs and shoals in the busy waterways of the South China Sea, to which both countries lay claim.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications.