Former Senator Leila de Lima said on Friday the Department of Justice (DOJ) can enforce a legal warrantless arrest through the Bureau of Immigration (BI) on suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo for stealing another person’s identity and violating immigration laws.
De Lima made this comment following the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) confirmation that the mayor’s fingerprints matched that of ‘Guo Huaping,’ a Chinese national who migrated in the country with her parents.
Speaking as erstwhile Justice Secretary, De Lima said the DOJ may initially treat this case as a simple immigration case, noting that the department may pursue immediate legal remedies instead of waiting for the proper filing of criminal cases against Guo before the courts.
“It would also be then unnecessary to still file a quo warranto case against her if the purpose solely is to put her immediately under preventive detention and stop her from performing her spurious position as mayor after the lapse of her current preventive suspension period,” she explained.
De Lima recommended that Guo be placed at the immigration deportation facilities pending her trial for the multiple criminal offenses.
“Since Bamban mayor ‘Alice Guo’ is not the real Alice Leal Guo, but a 2003 Chinese child immigrant identified as Guo Hua Ping, and who merely stole the identity of the real Alice Leal Guo, the immediate legal remedy against her is a warrantless arrest by the BI,” according to the former senator.
Guo can be deported to China where she belongs only after service of sentence, if convicted, De Lima said.
Meanwhile, in a Zoom interview, Senator Risa Hontiveros believes there is sufficient and strong evidence to hold Guo accountable for several crimes, which included a case of stolen identity due to her fingerprints matching with Guo Hua Ping.
“I think these fingerprint results under two names years apart is solid. The same are still the fingerprints,” Hontiveros said.
The opposition senator chairs the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality, which has been investigating human trafficking, among other charges linked to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO).
Guo found herself in the middle of this political firestorm after authorities raided a POGO hub in Bamban, Tarlac linked to her business connections.
With the latest evidence from the NBI, aside from a non-bailable offense of qualified trafficking in persons, Guo faces the cancellation of her birth certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).