JAKARTA, Sept 5 — Indonesia will today deport a fugitive former Philippine mayor accused of human trafficking and links to Chinese organised crime, an Indonesian police official said.
Alice Leal Guo, a former mayor of a town north of the capital Manila, has been on the run since she was linked to a Chinese-run online gambling centre where hundreds of people were forced to run scams or risk torture.
Philippine authorities seeking her extradition accused the former Bamban mayor of involvement in the illicit operation — and of being a Chinese national masquerading as a Filipina in order to run for office.
“She (Alice Guo) will be handed to the Philippines authorities and picked up directly by their interior minister and head of the police,” Krishna Murti, head of the Indonesian national police’s international relations division, told reporters.
“She will be flown back to Manila tonight.”
She was arrested in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Tuesday, according to the Philippine Department of Justice.
Guo is also wanted by the Philippine Senate for refusing to attend hearings on her alleged ties to scam farm operations in Bamban.
She faces charges of graft, money laundering and human trafficking in relation to the scam farm raid in Bamban.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos thanked the Indonesian government for their assistance in the arrest.
“Let this serve as a warning to those who attempt to evade justice: Such is an exercise in futility. The arm of the law is long and it will reach you,” Marcos said on social media yesterday. — AFP
