The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on Friday filed a petition before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Tarlac City, seeking the cancellation of the birth certificate of suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Leal Guo.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra stressed the petition was filed on the ground, among others, of her failure to comply with the legal requirements for late registration.
Besides, the chief state lawyer noted that although the suspended mayor was already 19 years old at the time, it was her father who belatedly registered her birth certificate in violation of Section 1(B), Rule 25 of the National Statistics Office Administrative Order No. 1-93.
The Solicitor General said that the fact of delayed registration was not indicated on the upper right margin of Guo’s birth certificate, in violation of Rule 14 of National Statistics Office (former name of PSA) Administrative Order 1-93.
There were also glaring inconsistencies between the entries in her birth certificate and information contained in other public records, he said.
According to Guevarra, the local civil registrar registered her Certificate of Live Birth (COLB) although it was incomplete, in violation of existing mandatory rules on late registration by the PSA.
In her birth certificate, her parents were called Angelito Guo and Amelia Leal and both were declared as “Filipinos.” However, the PSA said it has no birth records of Guo’s supposed parents.
The OSG noted that the “pattern of falsehoods” is not only present in Guo’s birth certificate, but also in the birth certificates of Shiela Leal Guo, alleged sister of the mayor, and their brothers Seimen and Wesley.
Guevarra said the birth certificates of Guo’s siblings will also be subject to cancellation in separate petitions.
“These are not mere mistakes or errors in making the entries, but are deliberate falsehoods, which render all of the COLBs void,” the OSG pointed out.
Guevarra explained the petition to cancel Guo’s birth certificate “will lay the groundwork for the subsequent filing of a petition for quo warranto,” although he clarified that it “is not a precondition.”
A quo warranto proceeding is initiated against an individual who usurps, intrudes into, or unlawfully holds or exercises a public office; a public person, who commits an act that serves as a ground for the forfeiture of the position; or an association, which acts as a corporation in the Philippines without being legally incorporated or without lawful authority to act.
The OSG is expected to file a quo warranto petition against Guo soon.
“If her birth certificate is cancelled, she will lose her most important defense evidence about her identity,” Guevarra said.
In case of the denial of the petition, Guevarra assured that this would have no bearing on the petition for a quo warranto.
“The quo warranto petition can be supported by preponderant independent evidence. It’s not dependent on the outcome of the cancellation petition,” Guevarra said.
“Her foreign citizenship will not be proven in the cancellation petition, but in the quo warranto petition,” he added.
Guo’s lawyers vowed to disprove allegations against her by providing “substantial evidence” to prove that she is a Filipino.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has recently confirmed that her fingerprints matched that of Chinese national Guo Huaping, as earlier exposed by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
Guo is being investigated by the Solicitor General, the Senate and other government agencies on allegations she is a Chinese spy and for her ties to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.