A Philippine court has sentenced “POGO mayor” Alice Guo to life in prison for human trafficking, marking one of the country’s highest-profile crackdowns on scam compounds, AFP reported on Thursday.
Guo, 35, was convicted alongside seven others for running a large Chinese-operated online gambling complex in Bamban, north of Manila, where hundreds of workers were forced to carry out online scams under the threat of torture. State prosecutors said Guo oversaw operations at the compound while serving as mayor of the town where it was located, despite later being ruled ineligible for office because she was not a Filipino citizen.
The compound included office buildings, luxury villas and a large swimming pool. It was raided in March 2024 after a Vietnamese worker escaped and alerted police. Authorities found more than 700 people from the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia and Rwanda, along with documents allegedly identifying Guo as president of the company that owned the facility.
State prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas said all eight defendants received life sentences. She said Guo and three others were convicted of “organizing trafficking,” while four additional defendants were found guilty of “acts of trafficking.”
Guo fled the Philippines in 2024 but was arrested months later in Indonesia. A Manila court subsequently ruled she had never been eligible to serve as mayor, voiding her claim to Filipino nationality.
The report cited a UN assessment noting that Southeast Asia’s scam industry has expanded significantly, with victims across the region losing an estimated $37 billion in 2023. The Philippines’ scam hubs proliferated during the Duterte administration, which expanded licensing powers for gambling operators. In 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos ordered a nationwide ban on offshore gambling operations following public outrage over the Guo case.
