Guo’s mom can’t be located in Philippines – senator

MANILA, Philippines — The alleged Chinese mother of Bamban Mayor Alice Guo can no longer be located in the country, according to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.

Latest information provided to the Senate by the Bureau of Immigration is that Guo’s father Jian Zhong Guo and alleged mother Lin Wen Yi or “Winnie” have not yet returned from abroad, Gatchalian said in a dzBB interview yesterday.

The two could still be staying in China, their native country, he added.

“That makes our call for a DNA test with the mother unlikely,” said the senator, who earlier dared Guo to take a DNA test with Lin Wen to disprove allegations that she lied about having a Filipino househelp mother.

“Because they are Chinese citizens, they are free to go to China and never return here,” Gatchalian added of the parents, who travelled together at least 170 times in a span of six years.

Gatchalian said the alleged mother in Guo’s birth certificate, Amelia Leal Guo, may be fictitious because no such person exists in the records of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

That Guo applied for a birth certificate at age 19 exposed the gaps in the PSA’s late birth registration being abused by foreign nationals who pose as fake Filipinos, he said.

“A birth certificate is a basic document to get a passport or to buy land. And in this case, to run for public office, even when your birth certificate is defective and irregular,” the senator said.

The Office of the Solicitor General has formed a team to look into filing a quo warranto case against Guo for allegedly misdeclaring herself as Filipino when she ran for mayor.

Gatchalian said there is a need for an executive session in the next Senate hearing as the investigation goes deeper into the involvement of criminal syndicates.

He said the scheduled Wednesday hearing would be closed-door upon the request of law enforcement agencies going after personalities who are tangled in a web of criminality funded by dirty money in offshore gaming activities.

“The agencies requested an executive session because their investigations are still ongoing and some matters cannot be discussed in public as they go after those under investigation,” Gatchalian said.

“They only have preliminary findings, which also affect national security, and thus cannot be revealed to the public for now. But the public can rest assured that these will be discussed openly once the investigation is officially concluded,” he added.

Neophyte mayor Guo was linked to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) activities in Tarlac because she applied for the local permits of POGO hub Hongsheng Gaming Technology before she entered politics.

After Hongsheng was raided in 2023, it was renamed Zun Yuan Technology, the subject of the latest raid in Bamban this March and located behind the town hall where Guo holds office.

The sprawling 10-hectare hub – raided for human trafficking, hacking and scams – was also located at the Baofu Land Development compound, which Guo used to own.

Two of Guo’s incorporators in Baofu – Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying – are involved in Singapore’s biggest money laundering case amounting to $3 billion.