MANILA: It started with a raid on a Chinese-run online gambling centre north of Manila where hundreds of foreigners and Filipinos were forced to run scams or risk torture. Then came explosive allegations that the local mayor was involved in the illicit operation - and that she was a Chinese national masquerading as a Filipina. The scandal stunned the nation and fuelled calls for the government to ban the online gambling industry over its links to financial scams, kidnapping, prostitution, human trafficking, torture and murder.
President Ferdinand Marcos outlawed the sector this week, saying "the grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop", and foreign workers involved have been given two months to leave the Philippines. Authorities believe there could be several hundred illegal online gambling entities - as well as a good number of the more than 40 licensed operators - that are running scam centres under the noses of public officials. Alice Leal Guo, the mayor of Bamban, where the raided scam centre was metres from the municipal hall, has been accused of human trafficking and money laundering in relation to the operation.
Guo has been suspended from her job and is in hiding after a warrant was issued for her arrest . She has denied the allegations against her. "It seems Alice Guo is only the tip of an iceberg," Senator Risa Hontiveros told a Senate committee investigating the online gambling industry.
"This committee hearing is in the process of uncovering a d.