Philippine court allows ex-mayor Alice Guo to attend Senate probe

A PHILIPPINE court has allowed dismissed nayor Alice Guo to attend Monday’s (Sep 9) Senate hearing about alleged illegal activities linked to China-centric online casinos, days after she was arrested in Indonesia, the local media reported.

A Tarlac regional trial court on Friday granted the Senate’s request to allow Guo to be at the hearing, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Guo is currently held at the national police headquarters after she was arrested on two counts of graft on Thursday, the same day the Indonesian police informed Philippine authorities that they had captured her.

Philippine authorities in late August filed money laundering charges against the former mayor of Bamban town in Tarlac province, north of capital Manila. Dozens of bank accounts and other assets linked to Guo had been frozen by the authorities over allegations of fraud, money laundering and human trafficking. BLOOMBERG