Alice Guo —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines— “Nalusutan tayo.”
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said this Wednesday, a day after releasing government records, which he said could prove suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo’s real identity.
“If we take back, umurong tayo ng konti, tingnan natin buong picture, nalusutan tayo…” Gatchalian said over Radyo 630.
(If we take back, if we look at the whole picture, we were deceived)
“Imagine may isang pekeng Pilipino na nakatakbo bilang mayor at kung hindi pa natin na-detect ito pwedeng maging congressman, pwedeng maging governor? At ilan pang ganitong posiblidad o pangyayari na mayroon tayo sa ating bansa dahil hindi lang natin nakikita?” he asked.
(Imagine there’s a fake Filipino running as mayor, and if we haven’t detected it yet, they could become a congressman, or even a governor? How many more of these possibilities or occurrences exist in our country because we simply don’t see them?)
Guo ran as an independent candidate in the 2022 elections. But after winning the mayoral race, she joined the Nationalist People’s Coalition where Gatchalian is part of if its advisory council.
READ: Gatchalian wants Mayor Guo expelled from NPC: ‘She’s connected to Pogo’
She is now at the center of a Senate probe after she was linked to two illegal offshore gaming firms in her town. These Pogo sites were recently raided by authorities.
However, her conflicting stories about her identity fueled questions and suspicions about her nationality.
Guo insisted she is a Filipino citizen as she was a love child of her Chinese father named Jian Zhong Guo and the family’s Filipina maid Amelia Leal.
But Gatchalian contradicted this claim, citing documents he obtained from the Board of Investments and the Bureau of Immigration bearing the name of a certain Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese citizen born on August 31, 1990.
READ: Gatchalian: Is ‘Guo Hua Ping’ the real Alice Guo?
According to him, Guo might be Guo Hua Ping who entered the Philippines on January 12, 2003 when she was 13 years old.
Gatchalian also noted that Guo Hua Ping’s registered mother under the Guo family’s application for SIRV is Lin Wenyi, whose name appeared in the family’s financial statements.
The senator is convinced Mayor Guo is lying about her identity.
READ: Alice Guo’s mother could also be Chinese, says Gatchalian
“Dahil nagsinungaling sya, itong mga ebidensya na ito magagamit na ngayon ng Office of Solicitor General sa pag pa-file nung quo warranto case para unang-una matanggal sya sa pwesto dahil bukod tanging Pilipino lang ang pwedeng tumakbo sa public office,” Gatchalian said in the same radio interview.
(Because she lied, these pieces of evidence can now be used by the Office of the Solicitor General to file the quo warranto case so that firstly, she can be removed from her position because only Filipinos are allowed to run for public office.)
He added that this is also another proof that late registration is being used to get a fake birth certificate or passport and run for a public office.
“Filipino lang pwedeng bimili ng lupa e pero alam natin si Alice Guo or si Guo Hua Ping , maraming lupang binili. Ilang ganitong pangyayari ang meron tayo sa ating bansa kumbaga baka mayroon ng mga dayuhan na bili ng bili ng lupa nagpapanggap na Pilipino sila pero pag tinignan mo sila dumaan sila sa late registration,” Gatchalian said.
(Only Filipinos are allowed to buy land, but we know that Alice Guo or Guo Hua Ping have bought a lot of land. How many such occurrences do we have in our country? There might be foreigners who pretend to be Filipinos and keep buying land, but when you check, they went through late registration.)
“So in other words, nagbukas rin itong investigation ng isa pang malalang problema na nangyayari sa ating bansa na hindi natin nalalaman, maraming dayuhan na bumibili ng lupa at hindi natin nalalaman at ngayon meron ng ebidensya na nangyayari na pala ito sa ating bansa,” he added.
(So in other words, this investigation has also uncovered another serious problem happening in our country that we were unaware of: many foreigners are buying land and we don’t know about it. Now, there is evidence showing that this is indeed happening in our country.)