A former Philippine mayor who spent weeks on the run accused of spying for China has been arrested in Indonesia.
Philippine authorities have been hunting Guo in four countries even since she disappeared in July amid investigations into her alleged criminal activities.
She is accused of protecting online casinos that were a center of fraud and a front for a human-trafficking ring in her pig-farming town of Bamban.
Ms Guo denies the accusations. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said she could fly back to the Philippines as soon as Wednesday.
She said she grew up on a family farm with a Chinese father and Filipino mother, but lawmakers investigating the operations of the fraud center said her fingerprints matched a Chinese national named Guo Huaping and accused her of providing a front for a criminal gang. spy.
Her sister was arrested and questioned by the Philippine Senate after the dramatic nature of the case sparked outrage in the country and attracted international attention.
As Manila and Beijing continue Dispute over coral reefs and outcrops in South China Sea.
However, China has yet to comment on the allegations against her.
The authorities believe Ms. Guo Passed border inspection in July She traveled to Indonesia on several boats through neighboring Malaysia and Singapore and was arrested on Tuesday at the border west of the capital, Jakarta.
Mr Marcos said her arrest was “a warning to those who try to evade justice”.
“This is a futile exercise. The arm of the law is long and it will eventually reach you,” he wrote on Facebook.
Photos show Ms. Guo wearing light pink pajamas and a white jacket when she was arrested.
Ms Guo came to national attention after authorities intervened in March A massive scam center discovered in Bamban Hidden under the online casino, known locally as Philippine Online Gaming Operators (Pogo).
Offshore bookmakers cater to customers in mainland China, where gambling is illegal.
Ms Guo’s case confirmed suspicions that POGOs were used as fronts for organized crime and led Mr Marcos to clamp down on them amid public outrage.
Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had close ties with China during his presidency and the online gambling industry boomed.
But Mr. Marcos has reversed the direction of the country’s foreign policy since taking office in 2022 and cracked down on crime related to online gambling.
In raids in Ms. Guo’s town, police rescued nearly 700 fraud center workers, including 202 Chinese citizens and 73 foreigners who had been forced to pose as online lovers.
A subsequent Senate inquiry focused on her inability to uncover the eight-hectare fraud hub despite it being located near her office.
Senators also grilled her about her parentage. She was relatively unknown in local politics but was elected mayor in her first bid for office, a rarity in a region dominated by political families.
Ms. Guo’s opaque responses to questions about her origins led some senators to accuse her of being a Chinese “asset” or spy.
In a television interview, she attributed her low profile to the fact that she was the illegitimate child of her father and her mother, who was also her father’s maid. She said this forced her to live a sheltered life on the family farm until she was elected mayor of Bamban.
But the controversy did not die down, and senators ordered her arrest in July after she refused to attend a subsequent hearing. By then, however, she had faded from public view.
Soon after, the anti-graft agency removed her from office.
In August, Philippine authorities said she fled the country undetected and traveled to Indonesia via Singapore and Malaysia.
One official said she might head to the Golden Triangle, a border region in mainland Southeast Asia that is known to be a hideout for organized crime groups.
A furious Mr Marcos then ordered her Philippine passport to be canceled and warned “people will get dizzy”.
He said Ms Guo’s escape “exposed the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes people’s trust”.
