Court rules Alice Guo is Chinese, voids mayorship

MANILA, Philippines — A Manila court has voided the Tarlac town mayorship of Alice Guo, who has been suspected as a foreign spy, as it ruled that she is “undoubtedly a Chinese citizen.”

In a 67-page ruling dated June 27, the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 34 ruled Guo is “nothing more but a usurper” of the Office of the Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac, since she was not only disqualified to hold the position but also from running for the post in the first place as only natural-born Filipinos can run for office under the Constitution.

It said it did not matter if Guo was elected as mayor in 2022 since this does not cure her of being disqualified due to lack of Philippine citizenship, which the court said, “was already existing at the time of the filing of her certificate of candidacy.

“It follows, therefore, that her proclamation was deemed void. Alice Guo is found disqualified from and is hereby adjudged guilty of usurping and exercising the Office of the Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. Accordingly, she is hereby ousted and altogether excluded therefrom,” Manila RTC Branch 34 Judge Liwliwa Hidalgo-Bucu said in the ruling.

The ruling stemmed from the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General. It is an exclusive power of the solicitor general to remove a public official who it deems holding a position unlawfully because seen as unqualified or ineligible.

The court found that Guo is “undisputedly” a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping, who was born of Chinese parents Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wenyi. She and her parents are holders of Chinese passports.

The Manila RTC also noted that there exists no birth, death and even marriage records of Guo’s purported parents Angelito Guo and Amelia Leal.

The court also gave weight and credence to the expert testimony of Alfredo Kahanding, chief of the Dactyloscopy Division of the National Bureau of Investigation, that Guo matched fingerprints of Chinese citizen Guo Hua Ping, who arrived in the Philippines from Fujian, China in July 1999, with her parents Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wenyi.

Guo Hua Ping was only nine years old then, and was given an investor’s visa as the minor dependent of her parents who were granted Special Investors Resident Visa.

Guo earlier testified before the Senate that her mother is a full-blooded Filipino named Amelia Leal but she had never met her. Amelia Leal was allegedly the maid of her father Angelito Guo and Alice was their lovechild.

Meanwhile, her birth certificate says Guo was born on July 12, 1986 in Tarlac to Angelito and Amelia who were allegedly married in 1952. The birth certificate was registered only in 2005, or when Guo was already 19 years old.

Kahanding had concluded that the fingerprints were from the same person and that Alice Guo is actually no other than Guo Hua Ping.

The court said Kahanding’s testimony “deserves full weight and credence” since fingerprint evidence is infallible and faultless because no two people, even identical twins, have the same fingerprint, and that fingerprints cannot be forged.

“Alice Leal Guo has utterly failed to prove that she is a Filipino citizen, absent any credible evidence to rebut the petitioner’s evidence… It can, thus, be safely concluded that Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national, assumed the identity of one Alice Leal Guo, representing herself as a Filipino citizen. Simply, Guo Hua Ping is Alice Leal Guo,” the court said.

“Just imagine a foreign individual, who was allowed to stay in the Philippines, was able to circumvent the law by posing herself as a Filipino citizen in order to meet the citizenship requirement to enter public office and ultimately, assumed the powers and functions of Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. Such a situation posed a risk to national security which is far more than real,” the court said.

“There is more than meets the eye because Guo Hua Ping assumed the identity of Alice Leal Guo and posed herself as a Filipino citizen to be able to run for, voted upon and be elected for a public position,” it added.

The OSG was assisted by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission in securing needed documents for the trial and coordinated with the presentation of Kahanding, one of the key witnesses.

Never qualified

The Manila court’s ruling confirming Guo’s Chinese citizenship and declaring her guilty of usurping the mayoralty of Bamban, Tarlac affirms long-held concerns over her eligibility, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday.

“The court ruling affirming that Alice Guo is a Chinese national and finding her guilty of usurping and exercising the Office of the Bamban Mayor validates what we’ve long been saying – that she was never qualified to hold public office,” Gatchalian said.

“Still, the government must rigorously pursue all cases against her and hold her accountable for her illicit activities. She should also be prohibited from owning land,” he added. “I also urge the government to go after those who aided and protected her. Foreigners must never be allowed to use government for their own selfish interests.” — Mark Ernest Villeza, Neil Jayson Servallos