Who is the real Alice Guo? Fugitive mayor accused of spying for China faces legal reckoning after weeks on the run

CNN —

For months, millions of people were glued to their TV screens as a slight, bespectacled young woman was grilled by lawmakers in the Philippines for hours at a time about her origin story

What is her real name? Age? Who are her parents? Where did she grow up? The official inquiry into Alice Guo, disgraced former mayor of a small town not far from the capital Manila, has been compulsive viewing for Filipinos since it began in May.

At stake was whether Guo, 34, had spent years in the Philippines as a sleeper agent for China, an incendiary accusation in a country that has seen tension with its giant neighbor soar along with multiple confrontations in the South China Sea.

In July, Guo left the country and went on the run across Southeast Asia. This week, the authorities finally caught up with her. On Friday, the former mayor was extradited from Indonesia to the Philippines.

In a press conference shortly after her return, she told reporters: “I have received death threats, and I asked for help (from authorities). And I was happy when I saw them. I felt safe.”

Her sanguine attitude was in sharp contrast with that of Philippine officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who warned lawbreakers that “the arm of the law is long, and it will reach you” shortly after Guo’s arrest abroad.

Upon arriving in Manila, Guo was immediately hit by charges from immigration authorities accusing her of “undesirability and misrepresentation,” for allegedly acquiring Philippine citizenship through fraud.

Guo also faces a slew of money laundering charges – as well as possible future charges for illegal gambling and human trafficking – all of which allegedly took place in Bamban, a small town in Tarlac province about 60 miles