Anger over the escape of a mayor accused of being a Chinese spy from the Philippines

A former mayor accused of spying for China and having links to criminal syndicates has fled the Philippines, causing an uproar.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday that “heads would roll” after officials admitted that Alice Guo left the country undetected a month ago and traveled to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Mr Marcos said their departure had “exposed the corruption that is undermining our justice system and destroying the trust of the people”.

Ms. Guo is no longer publicly visible since July when a Senate committee investigating her alleged ties to fraud agencies and online casinos ordered her arrest because she refused to testify before the investigative committee.

She is accused of allowing human trafficking syndicates and fraud centers to operate in her city by posing as online casinos.

Senators also accused her of being an agent or spy for China and pointed to her “opaque” answers to questions about her Chinese ancestry.

The police have filed criminal charges against her and the Philippine anti-corruption agency recently dismissed her from office on the grounds of “serious misconduct.”

She has denied all allegations.

Ms Guo left the Philippines “illegally” and bypassed border controls, the country's immigration authorities said. They learned of her trip abroad from intelligence sources.

Mr Marcos said he would “expose the culprits who abused the trust of the people and contributed to their flight.”

He also ordered the cancellation of Ms. Guo's Philippine passport.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who has been leading the investigation into fraud centers in the Philippines since May, said it was unacceptable for Ms. Guo to pass through immigration checkpoints.

“This fake Filipino cannot dare to flee with a Philippine passport,” she said.

Ms. Guo came under scrutiny in March after authorities uncovered a massive fraud and human trafficking hub in her sleepy town of Bamban, north of Manila.

The illegal operations were hidden behind Philippine offshore gambling companies, so-called “Pogo” companies, located on properties owned by Ms. Guo’s family.

Previously relatively unknown and having not held public office before her election as mayor in 2022, Ms Guo claims she grew up in a sheltered environment on her family's pig farm in Bamban.

While pogos are not illegal, they are increasingly being exposed as a cover for other crimes. The companies, which mainly target customers in mainland China, flourished under former President Rodrigo Duterte, who sought close economic and political ties with Beijing.

But Duterte's successor, Marcos, changed the country's foreign policy direction and has cracked down on pogo-related crimes since taking office in 2022.

Nationalist feelings are also growing in the Philippines as the dispute with China over reefs and rocky outcrops in the South China Sea continues to simmer.

Earlier this week, Manila and Beijing again made accusations of ship ramming in the resource-rich waters.