Bamban Mayor Alice Guo in an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN News' Karen Davila. 

MANILA (UPDATED) — Embattled Bamban town Mayor Alice Guo on Monday categorically denied she was a "spy" of China following her controversial appearance in the Senate that led senators to question her true nationality.

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In an exclusive interview with ABS-CBN News, Guo said she is a Filipino and denied claims that she was a Chinese "asset."

"Ang gusto kong sabihin sa lahat ng publiko, hindi po ako spy. Ako po ay isang Pilipino. Mahal ko ang sarili kong bansa... Hindi po ako asset," Guo said.

(What I want to tell the public is that I am not a Chinese spy. I am a Filipino. I love my own country. I am not an asset.)

Sen. Risa Hontiveros earlier floated the possibility that Guo could be a "Chinese asset," citing her questionable background, which the latter failed to clarify during a Senate panel hearing.

Hontiveros questions nationality of Bamban mayor linked to POGOs

The Senate hearing intended to investigate Guo's alleged links to a Chinese gambling site accused of several crime in her municipality in the southernmost part of Tarlac.

But Guo's apparent evasiveness to answer questions about her background raised even more suspicion from senators and the public.

On Monday, Guo told ABS-CBN News she was rattled by the senators' questions about her private life.

-- With a report from Jauhn Etienne Villaruel, ABS-CBN News 

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