MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) confirmed on Tuesday that the camp of Alice Guo filed before a Manila court a motion to dismiss the quo warranto petition that sought to declare as null and void her proclamation as Bamban, Tarlac mayor in 2022.
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said Guo’s motion challenging the quo warranto petition filed by the OSG last July was heard by the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) last August 30 and was now up for resolution.
Quo warranto is a special form of legal action used to resolve an issue over whether a particular person has the legal right to hold the public office that he or she occupies.
Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo
Guevarra said if Guo’s motion is denied by the court she would be required to submit a comment to the quo warranto petition filed by the OSG last July, which argued that the local chief executive was “not a Filipino citizen but a Chinese national” when she ran and won in the 2022 elections.
It said Guo, who was identified as Guo Hua Ping, holds a Chinese passport, being the daughter of Lin Wenyi and Guo Jian Zhong, both citizens of China.
The OSG further claimed that Philippine immigration records showed that Guo arrived in the Philippines in 1999 when she was 9-years-old. This is contrary to her testimony during a Senate inquiry that she had been in the country.
“Guo Hua Ping is not a Filipino citizen by birth or naturalization,” the OSG said in its petition.
It further argued that there was no “factual basis” to support Guo’s claim that she was a Filipino citizen which is a mandatory requirement under Section 39 of the Local Government Code.
“Thus, respondent Guo Hua Ping is illegally holding her position and must be ousted therefrom,” the OSG said.
The petition also cited the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that the fingerprints of the Bamban mayor matched that of Guo Hua Ping’s records.
The OSG noted that even international law enforcement authorities use fingerprint identification “given that no two individuals, not even identical twins, have the same fingerprints.”
It added that Guo has committed acts that were grounds for her removal from office.
Guo is accused of being the co-owner of a real estate in Bamban that was leased to an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) that was found to have trafficked individuals for its operations.
She is facing qualified trafficking complaints before the Department of Justice (DoJ).
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