Bamban Mayor Alice Guo may not have a monopoly over her supposed name, as more individuals bearing the same name are being found in the Philippines, but she remains the only Chinese national who managed to become the mayor of a municipality in Tarlac, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Wednesday.
The lawmaker pointed out that the ongoing Senate investigation targets only “the Alice Guo who is not a Filipino.”
Hontiveros made this comment after the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) found a third woman named Alice Guo.
NBI Director Jaime Santiago disclosed they are looking into fingerprint specimens of the third “Alice Guo,” who has the same name and birthday as the suspended mayor and Chinese national Guo Hua Ping.
He said that the bureau is using as basis the person’s NBI clearance application filed in Quezon City in 2005.
However, Santiago noted that agents sent to the Quezon City address on the NBI Clearance found that the third Alice Guo “does not seem to exist.”
The NBI chief said no other details about the third Guo’s identity can be found in government records and databases.
However, Santiago stressed, the unsuccessful search for the third Alice Guo has no bearing on the fact that the fingerprints of the suspended Bamban mayor and Chinese national Guo Hua Ping’s were a match.
Meanwhile, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian called on the NBI to continue its probe on the third Alice Guo to settle the mystery about her uncertain existence.
The senator, however, said that the investigation into a third Guo does not have any bearing on the NBI’s recent discovery about the suspended Bamban mayor’s past.
“Mayor Alice Guo has matching fingerprints with Guo Hua Ping and therefore, they are one and the same,” he said.
He likewise said Guo Xiang Dian is really Wesley Leal Guo, the mayor’s brother.
Gatchalian noted that this was verified through fingerprint matching conducted by the NBI using its biometric records as well as Board of Investments (BOI) records.
Furthermore, the probe revealed that Guo Xiang Dian arrived in the Philippines in 1999.
Gatchalian said he was listed as the dependent son of Lin Wen Yi, making him Guo Hua Ping’s brother.
“Wesley Leal Guo is an incorporator of CDAG Reality Corporation in which Alice Guo is the majority owner,” stressed the senator.
“This again demonstrates that the late registration process was abused by the Guo family to falsely claim that they are Filipinos,” he added.
Meanwhile, the heads of the NBI and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) met Wednesday to discuss cases that could be filed against the suspended mayor of Bamban.
The meeting took place at the poll body’s Manila offices after Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia requested a visit from the NBI director.
Garcia earlier said that the Comelec was preparing a case against Guo for allegedly misrepresenting herself as a Filipino citizen when she filed her certificate of candidacy for the 2022 mayoralty race.
Comelec Commissioner Ernesto Ferdinand Maceda, Jr. joined the closed door meeting.
The meeting’s outcome has not been disclosed as of this writing.