THE Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality yesterday issued a subpoena for suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, her family members, and other resource persons for their failure to attend the hearing on the ills of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) industry.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, who chairs the committee, sought the subpoena after Guo failed to attend the hearing, during which allegations of stolen identity and Guo’s links to other POGO hubs surfaced.
Guo excused herself from yesterday’s hearing, saying she was not fit to be one of the resource persons. She also claimed attending the hearings has caused her so much stress.
She apologized for her absence, saying she did not intend to “disrespect, disregard, or disobey” the committee’s invitation.
“Regrettably, I would like to most respectfully inform this Honorable Committee that I cannot attend and participate in the said hearing because I personally believe that I am not fit to appear as one of the resource persons to the said inquiry,” Guo said in a letter to the committee.
“Truth be told, my exposure to prolonged stress and high level of anxiety, owing to the concerning and malicious accusations thrown against me, have adversely affected and caused serious impact on my physical and mental health,” she added.
Besides, she said, she has been slapped with a six-month preventive suspension by the Ombudsman, with her petition to lift the suspension order denied.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue is investigating her businesses and she also faces a non-bailable offense of qualified human trafficking filed against her by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission in connection with the POGO operations.
“More importantly, I have been exposed to public ridicule, humiliation, and hatred for several months now, tarnishing my public image, character, and reputation. Unfortunately, I have already been prejudged guilty by the public despite the absence of any finding by the courts of law and proper tribunals,” she added.
Hontiveros said Guo’s presence is needed in the hearing, adding the mayor has to answer many questions. Hontiveros also said Guo’s absence is a “disregard of the invitation of the committee.”
“This is unfortunate because she has a lot of questions to answer. I want to ask her so she can directly answer my questions,” she said.
Hontiveros said the attendance of Guo’s family members is also important to clear things up.
Aside from Guo, subpoenas were also issued for her family members, including her father, Jian Zhong Guo; her suspected biological mother Lin Wen Yi, and siblings Shiela, Siemen, and Guo Chang Long.
The committee also issued a subpoena for Nancy Guo, the accountant and person in charge of filing documents for the Guo family’s businesses, whose name appeared in different POGO companies.
Nancy said her non-appearance was due to the late receipt of the invitation but Hontiveros said her excuse was only for the May 22 hearing.
PSA STAND
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said it has endorsed to the Office of the Solicitor General the cancellation of the live birth certificate of Mayor Guo due to the glaring irregularities in the delayed filing of her birth records.
Solicitor General Medardo Guevarra said his office is “seriously considering” the PSA recommendation to cancel the birth certificate of Mayor Alice Guo.
“Yes, we are seriously considering PSA’s recommendation to file a petition for the cancellation of Mayor Guo’s birth certificate, but this will just be a part of a bigger legal action that we cannot publicly disclose at this time,” Guevarra said.
Under the rules, Guevarra said the process for the cancellation of a birth certificate involves the filing of a petition with the regional trial court.
“But please take note that the OSG is still studying this option,” Guevarra added.
Engr. Marizza Grande, assistant national statistician of the PSA’s Civil Registration Service, said an investigation conducted by their Fraud and Management Division in coordination with the Tarlac Office of the Civil Registry showed that Guo’s birth records were filed in an irregular manner.
Grande said the birth records of Shiela Leal Guo, the mayor’s sister, were also filed in an irregular manner.
“Based on file, what was found is only the ‘negative certificate’ issued by the then NSO (National Statistics Office) as part of the supporting documents. And based on the negative certificate it also includes that of Shiela. (It) is the only sole supporting document submitted for delayed registration,” Grande told senators in a mix of Filipino and English.
“We also observed that the negative certification was issued after the document was prepared by the staff of the local Civil Registry Office,” she added.
Grande said having a negative certificate of birth records is important “to avoid double or multiple registrations,” saying Guo may have other birth registrations in other municipalities.
She said the delayed registration of the Guo siblings (Alice and Shiela) showed they were submitted under the regular monthly report.
“Which means that their registration was filed (on) November 22, 2005. It means that it has undergone the process of submission before the data was loaded in the NSO database,” she said.
“It appears in the issued certification that it was prepared earlier as compared to the date of the issuance of a negative certification,” Grande added.
She said the PSA has endorsed to the SolGen the cancellation of the live birth certificate of Mayor Guo since the agency has no authority to automatically cancel it if irregularities in the registration process were observed.
“Technically, her identity is floating because she is an official of the government and her Filipino citizenship is being questioned,” she said.
Hontiveros said that questions on Mayor Guo’s Filipino citizenship have serious implications since she was elected as a municipal mayor and may even seek higher office or be appointed to a government post.
Hontiveros said a staff member of her office who applied for the birth records of her alleged Chinese boyfriend was told that they could apply for a delayed registration of birth in Lanao del Sur or Maguindanao. She said one option was to get an identity from an orphanage.
Grande said they are investigating if there is a “syndicate” in the PSA that facilitates the acquisition of fraudulent birth records. She said reports on the irregular acquisition of birth records happened even during the lockdown period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding they have monitored the Lanao del Sur PSA office processing birth records when work at that time was suspended.
Hontiveros presented two National Bureau of Investigation clearances of two persons having the name Alice Leal Guo, with the same date of birth and birthplace, but one had the picture of Mayor Guo while the other had a different picture.
“Is it a coincidence na may dalawang Alice Leal Guo na pinanganak on July 12, 1986 sa Tarlac? Is it a coincidence that this NBI clearance was applied just a few days before the date of filing of the delayed registration of birth of the other Alice Leal Guo in Tarlac City? Or is this a case of stolen identity?” she said.
NBI records showed that Mayor Guo got the clearance on March 10, 2021 while the other Alice Leal Guo got hers on November 3, 2005.
“Has Guo Hua Ping assumed the identity of a Filipino woman and then nearly a decade later, ran for public office? Who is this woman with the name Alice Leal Guo but looks differently from Mayor Guo? Where is she now?” she added.
Guo Hua Ping was the name of the daughter listed by Lin Wen Yi when she applied for a Special Investors Resident Visa after she and Jiang Zhong Guo arrived in the country on January 12, 2003.
The SIRV presented by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian showed the attached picture of Guo Hua Ping looking like Mayor Guo. Records from that SIRV showed that Guo Hua Ping entered the country when she was only 13 years old.
Hontiveros said that Mayor Guo could have “stolen” the identity of Alice Leal Guo.
She said she asked the NBI to investigate if Mayor Guo is also Guo Hua Ping.
NBI Regional Director Jerry Abiera said they will compare the biometrics of Mayor Guo with the records of Guo Hua Ping and Alice Leal Guo.
POGO LINKS
Hontiveros said intelligence officers told her office that Mayor Guo has links to other POGO facilities other than the raided hub in Bamban, Tarlac.
“This committee is in the process of uncovering a deep and deadly web of bad actors involving international criminal syndicates, local and national politicians, and perhaps malevolent elements of a foreign state,” she said.
She said there is evidence pointing to Guo as having links with the POGO hub in Clark Sun Valley and the Lucky South 99 POGO facility in Porac, Pampanga which were raided by authorities for illegal activities.
She said that Huang Zhi Yang, an incorporator of Baofu Land Development Inc. in which Guo has interests, is a fugitive from China. Huang is also an incorporator of the Sun Valley Clark POGO hub.
Baofu Land Development Inc. owns the lot where the Bamban POGO facility was constructed. The first POGO hub that operated in Baofu was run by Hongsheng Technologies Inc. and then by Zunyuan Corporation.
The POGO hub run by Hongsheng was raided in February 2023 while the Zunyuan was raided last March.
Hontiveros said Mayor Guo has close connections with the operator of the POGO hub in Porac, Pampanga, proven by a picture that showed Catherine Cassandra Li Ong, an authorized representative of Lucky South 99, present during one of Guo’s campaign sorties in Bamban.
She said the committee has also stumbled on the connection of POGO hubs with a past Senate investigation, which she said she would disclose at the appropriate time.
Hontiveros said Mayor Guo is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
During the same hearing, Merlie Joy Manalo Castro, a native of Concepcion, Tarlac who works for a bank, said she was surprised to learn that her name was listed as one of the incorporators of Hongsheng Technology Inc.
She denied having connections with the company and had no idea why her name was listed as an incorporator.
She said her Bureau of Internal Revenue-issued taxpayer’s identification number card had a different TIN compared to the one on Hongsheng records. She added her signature was forged.
Castro said she also learned from news reports that a certain Rowena Evangelista, a vegetable vendor in Concepcion, Tarlac; a certain Stella who sells breakfast at the public market; and one Rita who sells grilled chicken at the public market were also included as incorporators of the company.
The Department of Justice said Castro and the three other women should attend the preliminary investigation of the qualified human trafficking charges filed against the listed incorporators and officials of Hongsheng to clear their names. The DOJ also advised Castro to file charges against Hongsheng officials or any persons who may have used their names.
The BIR said it would check the identity of the other BIR TIN cards presented.
Gatchalian, meanwhile, slammed PAGCOR for not checking the true identities of the incorporators of the POGO hubs.
“Why did PAGCOR not do a probity check? That’s bad because the wrong persons will be charged while the syndicate members remain scot-free. That is the work of lazy people because you just base on the documents filed. Your probity check is a failure,” Gatchalian said.
SEN. LAPID
In a rarity, Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid attended yesterday’s hearing to condemn a vlogger who had linked him to the raided POGO hub in his hometown of Porac, Pampanga.
Lapid said the vlogger, whom he did not identity, claimed the senator owns the 10-hectare lot where the Lucky South 99 POGO facility was built and that he reportedly acts as its protector.
Lapid said he would resign as senator if anyone could prove that he owned the property or if he served as POGO protector.
“I will not allow my name to be ruined here,” Lapid said in Filipino.
Lapid said that based on information his office has gathered, the vlogger has nine cyber libel cases, six of them having been issued warrants of arrest.
He said the NBI should pursue the cases filed against the vlogger.
Porac Mayor Jaime Capil, who was present during the inquiry, said that based on records, the 10-hectare lot is owned by the Cruz family. He did not provide other details. — With Ashzel Hachero
