Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr promised on Wednesday that “heads will roll” as the government investigates how a former town mayor accused of ties with Chinese criminal syndicates fled the country, stating that “the departure of Alice Guo has laid bare the corruption that undermines our justice system and erodes public trust”.

On Monday, Senator Risa Hontiveros shared information from the National Bureau of Investigation that Guo had entered Malaysia on July 18 before heading to Singapore on July 21. The Bureau of Immigration confirmed these suspicions, stating that “the intelligence information that Guo left for Malaysia and Singapore came from very reliable sources.” Various senators have called on the Department of Foreign Affairs to revoke Guo’s passport as a matter of national security and add her name to the International Criminal Police Organization’s red notice list. Placement on that list would enable law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest Guo.

Marcos promised that:

We will expose the culprits who have betrayed the people’s trust and aided in her flight. A full-scale investigation is already underway, and those responsible will be suspended and will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

Senator Win Gatchalian has similarly vowed that the Senate will pursue a criminal case against Guo for perjury and her continued defiance of a Senate subpoena:

This is a slap in the face for the Bureau of Immigration, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, and the airport manager concerned. You can’t just walk into an airport undetected, nor can you leave our airports undocumented. You have to pass through immigration and countless CCTVs. There should be traces of movement inside the airport all the way to boarding the plane.

Although Guo “slipped through the cracks,” Gatchalian said, “[h]er world will shrink, and the long arm of the law will eventually catch up to her.” Nevertheless, the chase has been a long one. Guo’s citizenship came under dispute earlier in the year when the NBI said that her fingerprints matched those of a Chinese national under the name of Guo Hua Ping, who entered the Philippines at age 14. Guo has firmly denied these claims.

Guo has been accused of having ties with associated criminals; incorporators of her company Baofu Land Development Inc. One of the incorporators of Guo’s company, a Chinese national named Zhang Ruijin, was convicted in April over links to what Senator Hontiveros described as the “largest money laundering case in Singapore.” The POGO industry is associated with transnational crimes ranging from money laundering to human and sex trafficking, tax evasion, and online scamming.

In June, Guo was placed under preventative suspension by order of the Ombudsman, to facilitate thorough investigations. The Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada would later go on to insist the Anti-Money Laundering Council consider issuing an order to freeze Guo’s assets in order to protect public funds. Senator Gatchalian urged Guo to cooperate with authorities to expose the POGO kingpins and dismantle the illegal operations, shedding light on the web of criminals involved. On July 13, the Philippine Senate ordered Guo’s arrest following two consecutive failures to attend her scheduled hearing. Guo claimed that she had not been fit to appear owing to stress and physical and mental health, maintaining that she had been the victim of “malicious accusations”.