NBI files new case vs Guo, kin over farmland purchase

Dismissed Mayor Alice Guo —House of Representatives photo

MANILA, Philippines — Another complaint has been filed against dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, this time including her family members and for allegedly faking their citizenship in order to purchase land in the country.

The National Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday filed the complaint against Guo, her reported siblings Shiela and Siemen, and parents Jiang Zhong Guo and Lin Wenyi.

The new legal action accuses them of misrepresentation and violating the antidummy law when they purchased four parcels of land in Mangatarem, Pangasinan, for their farm, 3Lin-Q.

READ: Alice Guo, family slapped with falsification, anti-dummy law raps

According to NBI spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin, Guo and her family presented themselves as Filipinos during the purchase.

Company papers ‘falsified’

But congressional investigations earlier this year into Guo’s alleged ties to a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) that was raided in her town of Bamban, Tarlac, led to the discovery of their Chinese citizenship, Lavin said.

Foreigners are barred from owning land in the Philippines under the Constitution.

“They falsified (their company’s) Articles of Incorporation, the Secretary’s Certificate and the General Information Sheet,” Lavin said in an interview.

Other cases

“They misrepresented themselves as Filipino citizens, [but then] the NBI was able to sufficiently establish that they are Chinese citizens,” Lavin added.

Guo is currently detained and facing several other cases, including for human trafficking due to her alleged connection to the raided Pogo in Bamban where more than 800 trafficking victims were rescued.

She has also been charged with graft before the Valenzuela City court, while a money laundering complaint was filed against her at the Department of Justice for allegedly hiding her financial interests in the land used by the raided Pogo. —Jacob Lazaro