Associated Press article lacks date:
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine court on Thursday convicted a former mayor, who officials say is a Chinese national, of human trafficking charges for helping establish an illegal online gaming complex in a northern province where hundreds of Chinese and other foreign nationals were forced to conduct scams.
The Pasig city regional trial court in metropolitan Manila sentenced Alice Guo to life in prison with seven other Filipino and Chinese co-accused, and ordered them to pay a fine of 2 million pesos ($34,000) each and compensate several trafficking victims, who filed the complaints.
Guo denied all allegations against her and says she is a Filipino citizen.
Vast online scam centers have flourished in Southeast Asia in recent years, especially in the border areas of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The U.N. has estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been trapped in virtual slavery by gangs who force them to financially exploit people around the world through false romances, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes....
Philippine authorities allege that Guo is a Chinese national named Guo Huaping, who faked Filipino citizenship to run for mayor of the town of Bamban in northern Tarlac province, where she ran a sprawling illegal scam compound near the town hall....
Last year, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a ban on hundreds of mostly Chinese-run online gaming operations, which proliferated under the administration of previous President Rodrigo Duterte. Marcos accused the gaming operations of crimes including financial scams, human trafficking, torture, kidnapping and murder.
Many have been raided and shut down since then, with tens of thousands of trafficked workers rescued and sent back to their home countries. But more scam centers remain in operation, officials said....
Philippine security officials and Hontiveros have said the scam centers operated by Guo and other Chinese nationals may have also been used for espionage by China, which has had increasingly fierce territorial conflicts with the Philippines in the South China Sea and has strongly opposed the presence of American forces in the country. The Philippines is the oldest U.S. treaty ally in Asia.
Illegal aliens, human trafficking, Chinese spies. What, no extraterrestials, mutilated cattle, AI?
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