THE Nationalist People’s Coalition leadership has approved the removal of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo as a party member over her alleged links to the operation of an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators hub in her hometown and the discrepancies on her birth records.
In a letter dated June 22 but released to the media only yesterday, NPC chairman and former Senate president Vicente Sotto III said he decided to drop the mayor from their roster after consulting with party leaders and members regarding the formal request of NPC provincial chairperson and Tarlac Governor Susan Yap to remove Guo from their list.
“The NPC will not tolerate any unlawful acts of any appearance of impropriety by its members that will undermine the principle of our party. In this regard, after due consultation with the leaders and members of our party and considering the gravity of the charges and ongoing investigations against Mayor Guo, I hereby order the removal of Mayor Alice Guo from the roster of members of the National People’s Coalition,” Sotto said in a letter to Yap.
Sotto said he would direct NPC Secretary General Mark Llandro Mendoza “to implement the order and immediately inform Mayor Guo of her removal from the party.”
Yap, in a letter to the NPC leadership dated June 17, 2024, formally asked the party to remove Guo from their members’ list since the mayor’s “integrity and honesty have been placed in great question,” which is against the party principles.
“Cognizant of the fact that our Party was founded on the principles of honesty and integrity, anchored by the desire for Goldy and humane services for the country and the people that we serve, I humbly pray, in my capacity as Provincial Chairperson of our Party for the Province of Tarlac, for the removal of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo from our esteemed Party,” Yap said.
Yap said the “recent controversy and the ongoing investigations” in relation to Guo’s alleged involvement in illegal POGO operations have put her integrity into question.
“The mystery of her citizenship, further, has clouded her qualification to be a member of the Party,” Yap added.
She said that while they are not prejudging Guo, the mayor’s mere denial of the allegations without presenting evidence is not enough to convince them that she is innocent.
“It appears that Mayor Guo has not, at the moment, presented compelling evidence which would disprove the immense documents being introduced against her. Her mere denial, without presentation of supporting evidence which should exculpate her name and put an end to the controversy, places her integrity in question at the moment,” she said.
Yap said the “volume of evidence” presented to prove that Guo is not a citizen of the Philippines cannot be discounted.
“If the evidence being presented, tending to show that Mayor Guo is “Guo Hua Ping” is proven to be true, it would then appear that there was deception from her end when she ran for public office,” she said.
“Absent any compelling evidence being presented in order to dispel these, I humbly pray that Mayor Guo be removed from the Party,” she added.
Guo’s real identity has been questioned after the Committee on Women chaired by Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros found discrepancies in her birth certificate that was issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Guo’s birth certificate showed her mother as Amelia Villaruel, said to be their house help who had an intimate relationship with her father, Angelito Guo, alias Jian Zhong Guo. Guo said Amelia left them when she was just a child.
But the committee also presented the birth certificates of Guo’s two other siblings — Shiela and Siemen–whose listed mother was Amelia Leal. The PSA said Amelia Leal does not have records with the agency.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian had said that Alice Guo may be the Guo Hua Ping who entered the country in 2003 at the age of 13 based on documents from the Board of Investments and the Bureau of Immigration.
Gatchalian said Guo Hua Ping’s mother listed in the Special Investors’ Resident Visa (SIRV) was one Lin Wen Yi, the person who was reportedly introduced by Alice Guo as her biological mother to their neighbors in Valenzuela City where the family had rented a warehouse.
He said that based on BOI records, Jian Zjhong Guo and Lin Wen Yi applied for a SIRV for themselves and their children when they arrived in the country in 2003.
He said the picture attached to the SIRV of Guo Hua Ping looked a lot like Alice Guo, which he said could be the reason why the mayor could not answer questions about her childhood days in Tarlac.
Mayor Guo had claimed she was home-schooled on their farm.
