PSA asks SolGen to cancel Guo's birth certificate

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has asked the Office of the Solicitor General to cancel Bamban Mayor Alice Guo's birth certificate, an official from the state-run statistics bureau said on Wednesday.

During the Senate’s hearing on the illegal activities of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) in the country, PSA Civil Registration Service's Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande said the filing of the documents for late registration for both Alice Leal Guo and her supposed sibling Shiela Leal Guo, was "highly irregular."

"The birth certificate was obtained fraudulently or irregularly, considering that it was submitted with almost no attachments, aside from a negative certificate from the NSO [National Statistics Office]," Grande said.

"We already endorsed to the Office of the Solicitor General for the cancellation of the copy (of their Certificate of Live Birth) since the PSA has no power to automatically cancel it when we see that there is an irregular process in the registration," Grande added.

The official also told the committee that the PSA's Fraud and Management Division, working with the Tarlac Local Civil Registry Office, did an investigation and found only the negative certificate from the National Statistics Office (NSO) as one of the supporting documents.

Asked what would happen if Guo’s birth certificate is canceled, Grande said the embattled local official’s identity will be considered as “floating.”

“Technically, madam, her identity is floating because she is an official of the government and her Filipino citizenship is now being questioned,” Grande said. 

About the issue on the syndicate inside the PSA, Grande said there are already cases that are now under ongoing investigation related to othis fraudulent registrations as source, and not only that, even the tampering of documents.

She added the state-run bureau is already doing its part to investigate if there is really a syndicate.

Grande also mentioned that the PSA is getting help from other government organizations that work with it to make sure the papers it releases are accurate.