SAYING she is “undoubtedly a Chinese national,” the Manila Regional Trial Court has granted the quo warranto petition of the Office of the Solicitor General filed against Alice Leal Guo dismissing her as mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
The decision issued by Manila RTC Branch 34 Presiding Judge Liwliwa Hidalgo-Bucu means Guo is not qualified to hold her post. Only natural-born Filipino citizens can run and hold public office, according to the 1987 Constitution.
The court upheld the arguments presented by the OSG that Guo and Chinese Guo Hua Ping are the same person, making her ineligible to run for public office.
“Alice Leal Guo is found disqualified from and is hereby adjudged guilty of usurping and exercising the Office of the Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. Accordingly, she is hereby ousted and altogether excluded therefrom,” the court’s June 27 ruling said.
“Guo Hua Ping is undoubtedly a Chinese citizen, born to Chinese parents, namely, Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wenyi,” the court added.
To recall, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Guo from her post in August 2024 for grave misconduct due to her alleged involvement in the operation of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) raided by the authorities early last year.
Guo argued that the OSG’s quo warranto petition was moot due to the Ombudsman’s order.
But the RTC nevertheless decided to rule on the OSG petition.
“Considering the peculiar circumstances involved and the novelty of the case, the Court will not shun away from its bounden duty to litigate,” it said.
NATIONAL SECURITY RISK
The RTC also said it would not render Guo’s petition moot despite the Ombudsman’s ruling and the fact that Bamban had already elected a new mayor in the May 12, 2025 elections, saying she is a risk to national security over her citizenship.
“This is not a simple question but a matter of national security,” the RTC explained.
“Imagine a foreign individual, who was allowed to stay in the Philippines, able to circumvent the law by posing herself as a Filipino citizen in order to meet the citizenship requirement to enter public office and, ultimately, assume the powers and functions of Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. Such a situation posed a risk to national security, which is far more than real,” the court added.
The RTC also gave weight to the evidence presented by the OSG that Guo’s fingerprint matches that of Guo Hua Ping and that there exists no birth, death or even marriage certificates for her alleged parents.
A dactyloscopy report issued by the National Bureau of Investigation Forensic and Scientific Service dated June 27, 2024 showed the fingerprints of Guo Hua Ping affixed on the Alien Fingerprint Card retrieved from the agency’s master files dated March 28, 2006 matched the fingerprints of the Bamban mayor on the biometric printout from the NBI Information and Communication Division Technology Division dated March 10, 2021.
Dactyloscopy, according to a medical dictionary, is an examination of the markings in prints made from the fingertips employed as a method of personal identification.
“Result of Examination: After a thorough examination and analysis, fingerprints of Guo Hua Ping y Lin and fingerprints of Guo, Alice y Leal were found identical,” the NBI report signed by Alfredo Kahanding, Chief of the Dactyloscopy Division and approved by Jose Doloiras, Assistant Director for Forensic and Scientific Research Service, said.
The NBI said the fingerprints of Guo Hua Ping y Lin and Guo Alice y Leal were “affixed by one and the same person.”
The RTC sided with the NBI finding, ruling that no two people have the same fingerprints.
It held that the fingerprints of Alice Leal Guo and Guo Hua Ping “were identical, with 15 identical ridge characteristics on their right middle finger and 15 identical ridge characteristics on their right index finger.”
Guo Hua Ping was the name of the daughter listed by Lin Wen Yi, who had been introduced by the dismissed Bamban mayor as her biological mother, when she applied for a Special Investors Resident Visa (SIRV) after she and Jiang Zhong Guo arrived in the country on January 12, 2003.
The SIRV presented during the Senate hearing last year on Guo’s alleged role in the operation of the Bamban POGO and her citizenship showed the attached picture of Guo Hua Ping looking exactly like Mayor Guo.
Records from that SIRV showed that Guo Hua Ping entered the country when she was only 13 years old.
The court also dismissed the birth certificate and passport presented by Guo as proof of her alleged Filipino citizenship, saying that it is not conclusive proof of Filipino citizenship, especially if they “contain dubious entries” which are not supported by concrete and credible evidence.
During the Senate hearing, Guo told lawmakers her mother, Amelia Leal, is a full-blooded Filipino whom she has never met.
It was alleged that Guo is the lovechild of her father, Angelito Guo, and his household worker, Amelia.
Guo is facing a string of cases before the Department of Justice, including falsification, tax evasion, and graft complaints over her connection with the operation of the Bamban POGO facility, and money laundering.
Last month, the Pasig City Regional Trial Court junked the demurrer to evidence filed by Guo in the qualified human trafficking case filed against her and several others by the DOJ.
The case was originally filed before the Capas RTC in Tarlac, but the Supreme Court approved the DOJ’s request for transfer of venue to “safeguard national interest and ensure fairness” in the justice system, considering the personalities involved in the case.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the court’s ruling that Alice Guo is Chinese and finding her guilty of usurping and exercising the Office of the Bamban mayor validates the Senate’s findings that she is not fit to hold public office.
“Still, the government must rigorously pursue all cases against her and hold her accountable for her illicit activities. She should also be prohibited from owning land,” Gatchalian said in a statement.”
He said authorities must not stop acting against the illegal activities of Guo even if the court found her not to be a Filipino citizen, since she could not have committed all her illicit activities if not for the help of unscrupulous individuals.
“I also urge the government to go after those who aided and protected her. Hindi na dapat maulit na magamit ng dayuhan ang ating gobyerno para sa mga pansariling interes (The government must not allow this to happen again — that foreigners use the government for their own interests),” he added.
Gatchalian was one of the senators who had consistently gathered evidence to prove that Guo is not a Filipino citizen, and her involvement in the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations, which has been ordered banned by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
