Indonesia to deport fugitive ex Philippines mayor accused of criminal ties

Indonesia will deport to the Philippines a fugitive former mayor accused of ties to Chinese criminal syndicates and money-laundering to the tune of more than 100 million pesos ($1.8 million), Jakarta’s law minister said on Wednesday.

Alice Guo, also known as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, is wanted by the Philippine Senate for refusing to appear before a congressional investigation into the alleged criminal ties.

Guo, who says she is a natural-born Philippine citizen, has denied the accusations, calling them “malicious”.

The Indonesian minister said Guo would be deported to the Philippines, but the timing of her return had yet to be fixed.

“(The timing) depends on the police investigation results,” the minister, Supratman Andi Agtas, told Reuters.

Guo was arrested along with a Chinese monk and was helped by a former Chinese police officer during her escape from the Philippines, Supratman said, but gave no details.

Her lawyer of record, Stephen David, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case comes at a time of growing suspicion in the Philippines about China’s activities, amid increasingly tense disputes over their claims in the busy waterway of the South China Sea.

Authorities in Manila, including justice and immigration officials, had earlier confirmed Guo’s arrest in Tangerang, near the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

“The close co-operation between our two governments has made this arrest possible,” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement, adding that Guo’s return was being finalised on Wednesday.

“The arm of the law is long and it will reach you,” he said, warning that wrongdoers’ efforts to escape justice would prove futile.

After her return, Guo, who cut her hair short in an attempt at disguise, will be handed to law enforcement and then the Senate, Jaime Santiago, director of the National Bureau of Investigation, told a press conference.

Philippine law enforcement agencies, including the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), last month jointly filed multiple counts of money laundering against Guo and 35 others to the justice department.

They accused Guo and her co-conspirators of having laundered criminal proceeds amounting to more than 100 million pesos ($1.8 million).

Guo ran for office as a Philippine citizen but her fingerprints were later found to match those of a Chinese national, Guo Hua Ping.

Removed from office as mayor of Bamban town in the province of Tarlac, Guo fled the country in July, travelling on her Philippine passport to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, before going to Indonesia in August, the anti-crime agency says.

The Senate launched an investigation in May after a casino raid in Bamban in March uncovered what law enforcement officials said were scams run from a facility built on land she partly owned.