Philippine prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas announced on 20/11 that after over a year of trial, the court sentenced Alice Guo and 7 accomplices to life imprisonment for human trafficking.

Guo's 7 accomplices are Jaimielyn Santos Cruz, Rachelle Malonzo Carreon, Walter Wong Rong, Wang Weili, Wuli Dong, Nong Ding Chang, and Lang Xu Po. In addition to human trafficking, Guo also faces trials for money laundering and corruption charges.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who led the Senate investigation into Guo, described the verdict as "a victory against corruption, human trafficking, cybercrime, and other transnational criminal activities."

Former Bamban mayor Alice Guo attended a Senate hearing in Pasay city in 9/2024. *Reuters*

Guo, 35 years old, was arrested by Indonesian police in 9/2024 after fleeing the Philippines. The defendant was elected and served as mayor of Bamban, a city north of the capital Manila. However, a court in Manila in 6/2025 declared Guo a Chinese national who had faked Philippine citizenship, thus making her ineligible to hold the mayoral office.

According to the indictment, Guo was the mastermind behind a complex in Bamban city. This was an online scamming center operated by Chinese gangs, with the value of the scams reaching millions of USD.

The extensive complex, which includes office buildings, luxury villas, and a large swimming pool, was raided in 3/2024 after a Vietnamese individual escaped and reported it to the police.

The Philippine military and police coordinated the raid on the complex, rescuing over 700 people from the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Rwanda. They also seized numerous documents showing Guo as the president of the company that owned the complex.

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines has not yet responded to requests for comment.

Location of the scam complex in Bamban. *Google Earth*

The transnational scamming industry has surged in Southeast Asia in recent years, involving hundreds of thousands of people. According to a United Nations report, victims in the region were defrauded of 37 billion USD in 2023, and this figure could be much larger globally.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban on international online gambling operations and the deportation of foreign nationals working in scam centers.