Another piece of evidence that further raised doubts about the real identity of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo was presented during Wednesday’s resumption of the Senate investigation into the raided POGO hub in her town.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who heads the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, raised the possibility that Guo assumed the identity of a Filipino national.
Hontiveros presented a document from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that had a picture of another woman named Alice Leal Guo who had the same birthday, 12 July 1986, as the Bamban mayor.
“I have many questions. Is it a coincidence that two Alice Leal Guos were born on 12 July 1986 in Tarlac? Is it a coincidence that this NBI clearance was applied for just a few days before the date of the filing of the delayed registration of birth of the other Alice Leal Guo in Tarlac City? Or is this a case of stolen identity?” Hontiveros asked.
Guo, who skipped the Senate investigation, was presumed to be Chinese passport holder Guo Hua Ping who, according to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, was registered with the Board of Investments as a dependent of Special Investor Resident Visa holder Lin Wenyi. Lin Wenyi is believed to be the biological mother of Guo.
Gatchalian said Guo Hua Ping arrived in the Philippines on 12 January 2003 when she was 13 years old. Guo registered her birth at the Philippine Statistics Office when she was 19 years old.
In her letter to the Senate panel, Guo said that she “regrettably” would not be able to attend the hearing as she “personally believes” that she is “not fit” to be one of the resource persons.
“I am not fit to appear as one of the resource persons for the inquiry. Truth be told, my exposure to prolonged stress and high levels of anxiety, owing to the concerning and malicious accusations thrown against me, have adversely affected my physical and mental health,” Guo said in the letter.
“More importantly, I have been exposed to public ridicule, humiliation and hatred for several months now, tarnishing my public image, character and reputation. Unfortunately, I have already been prejudged guilty by the public despite the absence of any finding by the courts of law and proper tribunals,” she added.
Hontiveros refuted Guo’s explanation that she was not fit to attend the Senate inquiry, stressing that she was “fit to be their resource person” in the investigation.
The Senate panel ordered the issuance of subpoenas to Guo, her father Jian Zhong Guo, her alleged mother Lin Wenyi, and siblings Sheila, Shiemen and Wesley Guo.
NBI verification
To verify which Alice Leal Guo is the real one, Hontiveros said she had asked the NBI to compare the fingerprints of the Bamban mayor and Guo Hua Ping.
“I wrote to the NBI to request the biometrics of both Guo Hua Ping and Mayor Alice Guo, looking to compare their fingerprints. We have obtained their fingerprints and these are currently being analyzed,” she said in Filipino.
For its part, the PSA said it has recommended to the Office of the Solicitor General the cancellation of Mayor Guo’s certificate of live birth (COLB).
Citing the results of the investigation conducted by the PSA’s Fraud and Management Division, PSA Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande said the delayed registration of the birth of Guo and her sister, Sheila, in 2005 was “irregular.”
“We already endorsed the cancellation of the copy of Guo’s certificate of live birth to the Office of the Solicitor General because the PSA has no power to automatically cancel birth certificates when we see they went through an irregular process,” Grande told the panel.
She noted that upon their investigation, Guo’s birth certificate was obtained “fraudulently or irregularly.”
Floating identity
Should the OSG approve the PSA’s recommendation to cancel Guo’s COLB, Grande said the local chief executive’s identity status would be considered “floating.”
“Technically, her identity is floating because she is an official of the government and her Filipino citizenship is being questioned,” she explained.
The local chief executive is under preventive suspension ordered by the Ombudsman due to a graft case filed against her by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Aside from this, the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission also filed a qualified human trafficking case against Guo, linking her to a grand conspiracy to commit labor trafficking involving around 500 foreigners to work for a POGO.
Over the weekend, the Nationalist People’s Coalition removed the mayor from its roster of members upon the request of Tarlac Governor Susan Yap.