A Philippine court has sentenced the former mayor of Bambana to life in prison for human trafficking, or rather, for her participation in the establishment of an illegal online gambling complex where hundreds of Chinese and other foreign nationals were forced to carry out fraud.
The Regional Trial Court in Pasig City in the National Capital Region of Manila sentenced Alice Guo to life imprisonment, along with seven other Filipinos and a Chinese national.
Each of them must pay a fine of two million pesos (29.000 euros) and compensate several victims of human trafficking, who filed lawsuits.
Philippine authorities claim that Guo is a Chinese national named Guo Huaping, who faked Philippine citizenship to run for mayor of Bamban town in the northern province of Tarlac, where she ran a large illegal scam compound near the city hall.
"They used plots and buildings to house illegal workers and forced them to work as fraudsters," the court said in its ruling.
Guo has denied all allegations and claims to be a Filipino citizen.
Huge centers for online fraud have flourished in Southeast Asia in recent years, especially in the border areas of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
The United Nations estimated that gangs have enslaved hundreds of thousands of people into virtual slavery.
They are forced by gangs to financially exploit people around the world through fake love ads, investment offers, and illegal gambling schemes.
Last year, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban on hundreds of mostly Chinese online casinos, which had proliferated under previous President Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos also accused casinos of crimes including financial fraud, human trafficking, torture, kidnapping, and murder.
Many people have since been raided by police and imprisoned, and tens of thousands of workers who were victims of human trafficking have been rescued and returned to their home countries.
Philippine officials say several such fraud centers are still operating.
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