File photo of Alice Guo. The Manila Regional Trial Court ousted her from her position as Bamban, Tarlac Mayor, and disqualified her from holding public office in the Philippines. House of Representatives photo.
MANILA, Philippines — Calling her “nothing more but a usurper” of public office, the Manila Regional Trial Court ousted Alice Leal Guo from her position as Bamban, Tarlac Mayor, and disqualified her from holding public office in the Philippines.
Granting the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General, the Manilla Court, through Judge Liwliwa Hidalgo-Bucu said Guo is “undoubtedly a Chinese citizen…who is not only disqualified to hold the position of Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, but also from running the said position in the first place.”
“Such being the case, respondent Guo Hua Ping a.k.a. Alice Leal Guo is nothing more but a usurper of the Office of the Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac,” the court said in a decision dated June 27.
READ: Ombudsman orders dismissal of Alice Guo over Pogo links
The court said the fact that Guo ran and won as mayor did not cure her disqualification due to a lack of Philippine citizenship.
“Her disqualification was already existing at the time of the filing of her Certificate of Candidacy. It follows, therefore, that her proclamation was deemed void,” it said.
Guo served as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac from 2022 to Aug. 13, 2024, after the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed her after she was found guilty of grave misconduct due to her alleged connections with the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) hub in her hometown.
Basis of the decision
First, there is no existing record of birth, marriage or even death from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) of Guo’s purported parents, Angelito Guo and Amelia Leal.
“In other words, no such names of persons are recorded in the database of the PSA,” the court said.
Second, the conclusion that Guo is not a Filipino citizen is bolstered by the comparative examination of fingerprints–those affixed to Guo Hua Ping’s Alien Fingerprint Card dated March 25, 2006, biometric printouts of Alice Leal Guo from March 10, 2021, and fingerprints taken upon her arrival from Indonesia on September last year.
An expert witness from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) confirmed that upon examination. The former Bamban Mayor and Chinese national Guo Hua Ping are found the same person based on the fingerprint analysis results.
READ: NBI: ‘Third Alice Guo’ a different person from Bamban Mayor Alice Guo
“Just imagine a foreign individual, who was allowed to stay in the Philippines, was able to circumvent the law by posing herself as Filipino citizen in order to meet the citizenship requirement to enter public service. Such a situation posed a risk to national security which is far more than real,” the court said.
Meanwhile, the former mayor relied on her birth certificate as proof of her Filipino citizenship.
Aside from the birth certificate, the court said, “She has not presented any evidence to support the truthfulness of the entries indicated therein.”
“Alice Guo has utterly failed to prove that she is a Filipino citizen, absent any credible evidence to rebut petitioner’s evidence,” the court said.
Who is Guo Hua Ping?
Guo Hua Ping a.k.a. Alice Guo arrived in the Philippines from China on July 12, 1999. Her parents, Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wenyi are holders of Special Investors Resident Visa.
Guo, who was only nine years old at the time was also given an investor’s visa as a minor dependent of her parents. An investigation conducted by the Office of the Solicitor General revealed that Guo and her parents did not apply for administrative naturalization to acquire Philippine citizenship.
“Thus, ample evidence shows that they remained as Chinese nationals,” the court said.
Guo is currently detained for a non-bailable offense of qualified human trafficking.
She is also facing cases for money laundering and graft. /mr
