Former Mayor Sentenced to Life in Trafficking Case

The former mayor of a small town in the Philippines was found guilty of human trafficking and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday. This comes more than a year after her ties to a Chinese organized crime gang spanning the country were investigated.

Deputy State Prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas of the Department of Justice told reporters Thursday morning that Alice Guo was convicted by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court of violating Philippine anti-trafficking laws. Ms. Guo was elected mayor of Bamban, Tarlac province, about 50 miles north of Manila, in 2022.

Her case in the Philippines came to prominence in 2024 when senators questioned her during a televised public hearing about a suspected gambling operation in Bamban. They accused her of working with Chinese criminal gangs that run online scams and human trafficking. They also asked her whether she had run for public office despite not being a Philippine citizen. Investigators found that her fingerprints matched those of a Chinese citizen named Guo Hua Ping, who was born in 1990. According to a birth certificate registered in the Philippines in 2005, Ms. Guo was born in 1986.

Authorities said she leased a 20-acre property in Bamban to Xun Yuan Technology, a gambling company, and helped it obtain a permit from the local government to operate an online casino. Police raided the site last year and discovered that more than 800 foreign nationals were being scammed online.

According to Ms. Torrevillas, Ms. Guo's sentencing on Thursday was the first successful prosecution of organized trafficking in the Philippines.

The United States, China, and several other countries have recently taken steps to curb the multi-billion dollar scam center industry. Ms. Torrevillas said Ms. Guo and three other defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and fined 2 million pesos, or about $33,800, each. The court also ordered Ms. Guo to forfeit her compound to the government, which lawyers say was used in human trafficking and scam operations. Ms. Guo's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. She was arrested near Jakarta in September last year and extradited to the Philippines.