Government lawyers file a quo warranto case against Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo on Monday, July 29, 2024. saying she is ineligible to hold public office. (Photo from Office of the Solicitor General)
Updated @ 7:13 p.m., July 29, 2024
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on Monday filed a petition for quo warranto before the Manila Regional Trial Court to oust Alice Guo from her position as Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
A quo warranto, which literally means “by what authority,” is a special civil action to determine if an individual has the right to exercise or hold a public office.
Here, the OSG, led by Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra told the court that Guo is “unlawfully holding the position and illegally exercising the duties and responsibilities of the Office of the Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.”
Guo filed her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) to run for mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, for the 2022 elections where she swore to the truthfulness of the the information she stated in her COC.
In the election, Guo received 16,503 votes — or 42.97 percent of the total votes cast for the position.
Then, last March, authorities raided a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in Bamban, Tarlac, and rescued 499 foreign workers, prompting the Senate to conduct an inquiry.
Guo denied involvement in the Pogo hub operation. She insisted on being a Filipino living with her half-Filipino and half-Chinese father, Angelito Guo.
According to her, she is a lovechild, raised and homeschooled on a farm.
‘Usurpation of office’
Guo Hua Ping first visited the Philippines in 1999, based on records of the Bureau of Immigration. She was accompanied by her mother, Lin Wenyi.
After four years, in 2003, 12-year-old Guo Hua Ping returned to the Philippines accompanied by her parents — Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wenyi.
Her family received a Certificate of Registration from the BI. Her mother was agot a Special Investor’s Resident Visa (SIRV) from the Board of Investments (BOI) where she declared Guo one of her children.
Guo Hua Ping flew in and out of the country 30 times with an SIRV status. Her last date of arrival in the Philippines was March 2011.
Alice Leal Guo received her birth certificate when she was 19 years old. The OSG has already filed a separate case to cancel her birth certificate.
Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) came up with a separate finding stating that the fingerprints of Mayor Guo and Guo Hua Ping are the same, making them one and the same person.
“She is not a Filipino citizen. She is a Chinese national. Thus, she is ineligible to run for any elective public office,” Guevarra told reporters.
He said Guo’s stay as mayor “is tantamount to usurpation of such office.”
‘Moral depravity’
The OSG said Guo committed acts of serious dishonesty, a ground for her removal from office under the Local Government Code.
The serious dishonesty, the OSG said arises from her act of representing herself as “Alice Lea Guo,” a different name from Guo Hua Ping, which she used when she registered her entry in the Philippines.
An act is considered serious, according to the OSG, when it exhibits “moral depravity on the part of the public officer.”
The petition reads “Respondent Guo Hua Ping’s repeated misrepresentation of herself as Alice Leal Guo, a Filipino, to conceal her lack of qualifications to hold public office and pursue fraudulent transactions constitutes moral depravity.”
The OSG will present 11 witnesses from various government agencies and over 40 documents.
INQUIRER.net has reached out to Guo’s camp, but it has not responded as of posting time.
