'Chinese spy' mayor wanted in the Philippines arrested in Indonesia

A fugitive mayor accused of being a Chinese spy in the Philippines was arrested in Indonesia.

Disgraced politician Alice Guo, 34, reportedly fled the Philippines in July amid investigations into her alleged links to online Chinese casinos in her rural town of Bamban in Tarlac province.

She was detained by Indonesian police in Tangerang City along the western borer of Jakarta in the early hours of September 4.

Mico Clavano, spokesman for the Philippine Department of Justice, said in a statement: 'This development has been verified by our counterparts in Immigration, who confirmed that Guo is currently under the custody of the Indonesian Police at Jatanras Mabes Polri.'

Philippine authorities said they were arranging for the extradition of Guo 'at the soonest possible time'.

Guo, also known as the Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, is the subject of multiple money laundering charges filed by Philippine law enforcement agencies.

Her controversial case stemmed from a raid that uncovered a sprawling Chinese online casino built on land she partly owned in Bamban town.

She was being grilled by Philippine senators for allegedly protecting criminal syndicates in the casinos locally known as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO).

POGOs cater to Chinese gambling clients in the Chinese mainland, but are notorious for being fronts for criminal activity, including fraud and human trafficking. They mushroomed in the Philippines after former President Rodrigo Duterte cultivated close ties with China during his term.

Guo was last seen in public on May 22. She was dismissed by an anti-graft body and soon went into hiding, refusing to appear before the Senate because 'she was traumatised'.

The mayor sparked fury among locals as she later revealed to have slipped past border checks, travelling through Malaysia, Singapore, and finally Indonesia, where she was caught.

Indonesian police were on high alert following the arrest of Guo's foster sister Shiela and their family friend Cassandra Ong, who both accompanied her while fleeing, in Batam on August 20.

Guo, a newcomer in politics, had insisted on her Filipino heritage in interviews with local media. However, fingerprint matches allegedly found that she was Chinese citizen Guo Hua Ping, sparking outrage and calls for her ouster.

The controversy comes amid the Philippines' territorial conflicts with China over parts of the South China Sea.

Expansionist China currently lays claim over almost the entire South China Sea, one of the world's busiest sea lanes. But a United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016 deemed its claims groundless.

The Communist rogue state - accused of genocide for its crimes against the Uyghur population - has been steadily increasing its influence in recent years through investment in developing countries.