The National Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the fingerprints of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo matched with those of Chinese passport holder Guo Hua Ping, Senator Risa Hontiveros said Thursday.
“Indeed, the NBI has confirmed that the fingerprints of Mayor Alice Guo and Guo Hua Ping match. This means that they are the fingerprints of one and the same person,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
“This confirms what I have suspected all along. 'Mayor Alice' is a fake Filipino — or should I say, Guo Hua Ping. She is a Chinese national masquerading as a Filipino citizen to facilitate crimes being committed by POGO,” she added.
To recall, Hontiveros’ panel ordered the NBI to examine the fingerprints of Mayor Alice Guo and Guo Hua Ping during the continuation of the Senate inquiry into the raided POGO hubs in Bamban, Tarlac.
Citing a document from the NBI, she presented a picture of another woman named Alice Leal Guo, who shares the same birthday, July 12, 1986, as the local chief executive.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian earlier said that Guo Hua Ping is registered with the Board of Investments as a dependent of Special Investor Resident Visa holder Lin Wenyi, believed to be the real biological mother of the local chief.
Gatchalian said Guo Hua Ping arrived in the Philippines on 12 January 2003, when she was still 13 years old. On the other hand, Guo registered her birth certificate to the Philippine Statistics Authority when she was already 19 years old in 2005.
Huge insult
Hontiveros said the confirmation that the local chief executive is not a Filipino but a Chinese national is a “huge insult” to the electorates of Bamban, where she secured her position in 2022 with 16,503 votes, only 500 votes higher than her closest rival, Anupul barangay captain Joey Salting.
“This is a huge insult to the voters of Bamban, to our government institutions, and to every Filipino citizen. This is the most substantial evidence to remove 'Mayor Alice' from office,” she said.
Expedite quo warranto
With the recent development, Hontiveros called on the Office of Solicitor General to expedite its filing of a quo warranto case against Mayor Guo.
"She should be held accountable for all the crimes she and her POGO hub have committed,” she said.
The OSG last month launched its own investigation into the background of Mayor Guo to investigate whether there is a legal basis to file a quo warranto case against her.
A quo warranto case questions the validity and legality of someone holding a certain position.
The PSA on the same hearing on Thursday said it had already recommended to the OSG the cancellation of Guo’s certificate of live birth (COLB).
Citing results of the investigation conducted by the agency’s Fraud and Management Division, PSA Assistant National Statistician Marizza Grande said the delayed registration of the birth of Guo and her sister, Sheila, 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.”
Should the OSG approve the PSA’s recommendation to cancel Guo’s COLB, Grande said the local chief executives’ identity status will be considered as “floating”.
“Technically, her identity is floating because she is an official of the government, and her Filipino citizenship is being questioned," she explained.
DAILY TRIBUNE has sought a comment from Mayor Guo’s camp regarding the latest development in her case, but she has yet to respond, as of press time.
Likewise, the paper reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Manila for a comment, but there has been no response.