Fury as suspected China spy flees the Philippines

An ex-mayor accused of spying for China and having ties with criminal syndicates has fled the Philippines, stirring fury.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said Wednesday that "heads will roll" after officials admitted Alice Guo had left the country undetected one month ago and travelled to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.

Mr Marcos said her departure "laid bare the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes the people's trust".

Ms Guo has been out of public view since July when a Senate panel investigating her alleged links to scam centres and online casinos ordered her arrest for refusing to testify in its enquiry.

She is accused of allowing human trafficking syndicates and scam centres to operate in her town by masquerading as online casinos.

Senators have also accused her of being an operative or spy for China, citing her "opaque" answers to questions about her Chinese parentage.

Police have filed criminal complaints against her, while the Philippines' anti-graft body recently dismissed her from office citing "grave misconduct".

She has denied all the allegations.

Ms Guo left the Philippines "illegally" and skipped border checks, according to the country's Bureau of Immigration, which said it found out about her travels abroad through intelligence sources.

Mr Marcos said he would "expose the culprits who have betrayed the people's trust and aided in her flight."

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

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who has been leading the investigation on the Philippines' scam centres since May, said it is unacceptable for Ms Guo to slip past immigration checks.

"The nerve of this fake Filipino, using a Philippine passport to escape," she said.

Ms Guo came under scrutiny in March after authorities uncovered a huge scam centre and human trafficking operation in her sleepy town of Bamban, north of Manila.

The illegal operations were hidden in Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, or "Pogo" firms, that stood on land owned by Ms Guo's family.

Prior to that, Ms Guo was relatively unknown and had not held public office before being elected mayor in 2022. She claims she grew up sheltered in the family's pig farm in Bamban.

While Pogos are not illegal, they are increasingly being exposed as cover for other crimes. The firms, which mostly cater to mainland Chinese clients, flourished under former president Rodrigo Duterte, who sought close economic and political ties with Beijing.

But Mr Duterte's successor, Mr Marcos, reversed the country's foreign policy direction and has cracked down on Pogo-linked crimes since assuming office in 2022.

Nationalist sentiment is also growing in the Philippines, as its dispute with China over reefs and outcrops in the South China Sea continue to fester.

Earlier this week, Manila and Beijing traded fresh allegations of ship ramming in the resource-rich waters.