MANILA – The curious case of a former Philippine town mayor who fled the country after being accused of being a Chinese spy and crime boss is stoking fears of discrimination among Chinese-Filipinos.

Locally called Chinoys or Tsinoys, Filipino nationals who are of Chinese ancestry fear that the case of former Bamban mayor Alice Guo is fanning the flames of Sinophobia amid Manila’s dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea.

Filipinos’ social media feeds have been flooded with memes and videos criticising her alleged links to the country’s online casino industry, or Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos) – mostly Chinese-backed and now banned.

Filipinos were even more outraged when Guo, who is believed to be a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping, escaped from the Philippines in August despite facing multiple probes for her alleged links to crime syndicates.

Historian Meah Ang See, a Chinese-Filipino, told The Straits Times that some Tsinoys have already been experiencing what she described as microaggression from fellow Filipinos. The latter have teased them about whether they know Guo personally or have anything to do with Pogos.

Ms Ang See was formerly director of the Kaisa Para sa Kaunlaran organisation, which advocates for Tsinoys’ integration into Philippine society. She is also a former president of Bahay Tsinoy, a museum on the ethnic Chinese people’s contributions to Philippine history.

“We’re not Pogos. We are living our lives as Filipinos. We definitely are Filipino citizens. We are legal. We are not involved in crime,” she added.

Some netizens mocked Guo’s accent and looks in posts about her evasive answers when she faced Filipino senators for the first time in May.  

“She sounds like she works at the Shenzhen sorting centre,” one Facebook user wrote, in reference to a distribution compound in China where Filipinos’ orders from Chinese e-commerce shops are usually packed before shipment.

For Chinese-Filipino author and podcaster Cedric Cheng, comments like this indicate that some Filipinos are still unable to distinguish between Tsinoys and Chinese nationals living or working in the Philippines.

In an episode of the Now Steaming: Conversations On Tsinoy Life podcast on Aug 5, he said Guo’s case has sparked a “new wave of Sinophobia” online and could lead to “hostile interactions” against Tsinoys offline.

Ms Ang See said there are some 1.2 million Tsinoys, which is about 1 per cent of the Philippines’ total population. This tally does not include the Chinese nationals working in the Philippines, whose number is not readily available.

The Tsinoy community has contributed much to the nation’s history since the first wave of Chinese immigrants moved to Manila from Fujian province in the 1500s.

Chinese influence has since seeped through Philippine cuisine, culture and traditions. The oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594, is located in the heart of the capital Manila, drawing millions of visitors each year for its Chinese-Filipino food and Chinese New Year festivities.

Despite these rich ties, anti-Chinese sentiments have been growing among Filipinos in recent years as Beijing ramped up its aggressive actions against Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea.

These sentiments, coupled with anger over the Guo case, have spilt over to confront some Tsinoys. Some have been asked which side they would support should war erupt between the Philippines and China over the disputed waterway.