Alice Guo, a fugitive former mayor of a town in the Philippines accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates, has arrived back in the Philippines after she was deported from Indonesia.
Guo, whose case has gripped the Philippines, was the subject of an arrest warrant after she failed to appear before a Senate inquiry investigating financial scams and human trafficking found to be taking place at a sprawling compound in her town, Bamban, in Tarlac province.
She was arrested on Tuesday at a hotel in the Indonesian city of Tangerang. She arrived in Manila on Friday on a private plane flanked by Philippine law enforcement authorities, including the country’s interior minister, Benjamin Abalos Jr, who led her handover from Indonesian authorities in Jakarta.
“I have received death threats and I am asking for the help [of Philippine authorities],” Guo told a press briefing shortly after her arrival in Manila.
Guo has faced questions from senators and investigators over her business dealings and alleged links to the compound. Increasingly, she has also been quizzed over her identity due to discrepancies in her documents, and allegations she was in fact Chinese. One senator questioned if she was a Chinese spy.
Guo has denied any wrongdoing and maintains she is the “love child” of a Chinese man and his wife’s helper, who was a Filipina.
It had been reported on Wednesday that her extradition could face complications as Indonesia hoped for her to be handed over in exchange for the Australian national Gregor Haas, who is wanted by Jakarta for alleged drug smuggling – a charge that could lead to the death penalty.
However, the department of justice undersecretary, Nicholas Felix Ty, told the Philippine news outlet Rappler on Wednesday that there had been no official request from Indonesia for a prisoner swap.
Krishna Murti, the chief of the international division of Indonesia’s national police, told Associated Press in Jakarta that “exchange efforts are still being negotiated” over the return of Haas.
Guo had already been dismissed from her post as mayor for grave misconduct, and on Thursday an arrest was issued against her for two counts of graft.
In addition, the Philippines’ anti-money laundering council recently filed several charges of money laundering against her and 35 others before the department of justice, accusing them of laundering more than 100m pesos (£1.3m). The presidential anti-organised crime commission has also filed qualified human trafficking charges, now under consideration by the office of the prosecutor.
Reuters contributed to this report
