Mayor Guo dared: Take DNA test

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian has dared Bamban Mayor Alice Guo to take a DNA test amid allegations that she lied about having a Filipino househelp as mother.

Gatchalian made the challenge after the Senate investigation on Guo’s alleged links to illegal offshore gaming activities bared more disturbing details about her family.

He said Guo’s family business corporate records showed Guo’s father Jian Zhong Guo, siblings Shiela and Seimen, and a certain Lin Wen Yi, as incorporators. Lin Wen Yi is allegedly her Chinese mother with the Filipino name “Winnie.”

“I call on the two to have a DNA test to find out if they are related or not. She has nothing to lose,” Gatchalian said in an interview with dzBB on Friday.

The senator said he has sources in Valenzuela, his family’s political turf, that the Guo family used to have a warehouse there and that people knew Lin Wen Yi or “Winnie” as the mother.

“The Filipino name ‘Winnie’ is also not far from the name ‘Lin Wen Yi,’ and an English version of the Chinese name that is usually done in Chinese families,” Gatchalian said.

It is also customary for family-owned businesses to include the members of the family as their incorporators, he added.

The Guo patriarch’s travel records with Lin Wen Yi – at least 170 times in the span of six years – also indicated that the two were more than just business partners, Gatchalian said.

There is also a 13-year age gap between the two – Jian Zhong Guo was born in 1958, while Lin Wen Yi was born in 1971, Gatchalian said, citing incorporation records.

This meant that while the patriarch was of legal age, the mother was just 15 years old when she gave birth to Alice Guo, and 13 years old when she birthed the eldest, Shiela.

But Gatchalian questioned the accuracy of the dates of their birth years because of the gaps already seen in their records, such as different dates of marriage with the alleged Filipino househelp mother.

Reacting to Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III’s observation that the focus of the Senate probe has shifted from possible criminality issue to sordid family drama, Gatchalian said they had merely expanded the probe to include possible money laundering activities in Guo’s businesses.

Gatchalian earlier alleged that the Guo family’s companies could have been used for money laundering, as shown by their farm and embroidery business posting cash flow despite not making an income.

“We are not being sidetracked, because we need to see all the personalities involved. This is large-scale money laundering involving several people, led by an ‘enabler’ who opened the door for criminality to enter the country,” Gatchalian said.

The next Senate hearing will be an executive session because of authorities’ ongoing investigation on Guo’s alleged role in illegal offshore gaming activities.