Contrary to the claims of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, her biological mother may not be Filipino but rather a Chinese national, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian revealed on Wednesday.

Gatchalian, who together with Senator Risa Hontiveros is leading the Senate investigation into the raided POGO hubs in Tarlac, has determined that Mayor Guo's birth mother is a Chinese woman named Wenyi Lin.

"So, I asked around among those who worked with them, those who rented the warehouse, and the locals there. This person, Wenyi, was introduced as her mother to the people in Valenzuela," he told reporters in an ambush interview.

"So, my personal assessment is that this might be Alice Guo's biological mother. Based on my inquiries and their family business, Wenyi is always present. It's consistent that Wenyi is there," he added.

During the continuation of the Senate hearing last week, senators learned that Mayor Guo's biological parents, Angelito Guo and Amelia Leal were registered as Filipinos on her birth certificate.

Mayor Guo, in an exclusive television interview, earlier claimed that she was a love child of her Chinese father to their Filipino helper, whom she said abandoned her after she was born.

BI records

Citing records from the Bureau of Immigration, Gatchalian said Jian Zhong Guo, the biological father of the embattled local chief executive, Guo’s father, traveled with Wenyi a total of 170 times over the last six years.

"She's [Wenyi] a Chinese citizen based on the Bureau of Immigration (BI) records. Our flight records came from the Bureau of Immigration; she is a Chinese citizen and carries a Chinese passport," he said.

Invited next hearing

To shed light on the matter, Gatchalian said he would request for the presence of the alleged biological parents of Mayor Guo in the next hearing of the Senate.

"I'll ask the chairperson to invite her parents. Of course, this is again in line with expanding our investigation because, in my opinion, her parents, especially her mother, are present in all of those corporations. So, we need to know where the money coming in is originating from," he said.

Mayor Guo previously said that her father, who only visited her occasionally at the farm where she grew up, was not a Filipino but a Chinese citizen holding a Chinese passport.

She also admitted that her biological parents have two other children, Shiela and Seimen, which caused more confusion for the senators as the date of the marriage of her supposed parents was different from the birth certificates of her supposed siblings.

The date of marriage of Angelito and Amelia on Mayor Guo's and Sheila's birth certificate was on 14 October 1962, while Siemen's records declared it was on 21 January 1967.