FILE PHOTO: Alice Guo. INQUIRER/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has filed a petition seeking the cancellation of the birth certificate of suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo, an initial move that could lead to her ouster as she faces criminal complaints over her alleged links to a raided online gaming hub in her town.
The petition was filed on Friday before the Tarlac City Regional Trial Court, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said.
According to Guevarra, the petition cited as a ground for cancellation Guo’s failure to file the required supporting documents for the late registration of her birth certificate.
READ: NBI findings prove Alice Guo ‘a fake Filipino’ – senators
“If her birth certificate is canceled, she will lose her most important defense evidence about her identity,” Guevarra said in a message to reporters on Friday.
‘Glaring inconsistencies’
The Solicitor General did not specify the documents that Guo supposedly failed to submit, but he cited “violations” and “glaring inconsistencies” between the entries in her birth certificate and those in other public records.
Guevarra noted, for example, that Guo’s father, Angelito, had her birth registered on Nov. 22, 2005, when she was already 19 years old.
This was a violation of Administrative Order No. 1-93 of the National Statistics Office which requires a late birth registration to be done by the subject person if he or she is already 18 years old or above, he said.
Guevarra also noted that Guo’s parents Angelito and Amelia Leal were both declared as Filipino citizens in the birth document but the Philippine Statistics Authority (the former NSO) found no birth certificates pertaining to the couple themselves in its files, he added.
Guevarra said the birth certificate’s cancellation would lay the groundwork for the quo warranto petition that the OSG also plans to file for the eventual removal of Guo as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
Alleged anomalies surrounding Guo’s birth records and origins first surfaced in a Senate inquiry into her alleged ties to a Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) that was raided by authorities in March. The crackdown was launched by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on suspicions that the Pogo was being used for human trafficking, online scams, and other criminal activities.
DOJ probe opens
Also on Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) opened its preliminary investigation into the complaint for qualified human trafficking that the police had filed against Guo and 13 others in connection with the Bamban Pogo raid.
Guo did not appear in the first hearing, where she was represented by lawyer Alex Avisado.
Speaking to reporters, Avisado described the evidence presented against his client to be “weak” and the complaint “a little forced.”
“(Just) papers, electric bills, a letter of no objection, articles of incorporation. These documents are not enough to commit the crime of human trafficking,” he said.
READ: BIR to probe Guo for tax evasion
“There must be an overt act. So this case filed against her is weak. It’s a little forced. In fact, when you look at the complaint, the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) and PAOCC admits that there is no direct evidence of human trafficking against Alice Guo,” the lawyer added.
Avisado said the defense team would submit Guo’s counter affidavit on July 22.
According to Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty, Guo’s presence is required in the next hearing, where she must file the counter affidavit and swear on it in person.