SolGen to challenge Alice Guo's right to hold office

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) will file a quo warranto petition against Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo this month.

This has been confirmed by Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra in a message to Philstar.com on Tuesday.

“The OSG will file two separate petitions this month, including quo warranto. We’re just waiting for certified copies of our documentary evidence from official sources,” Guevarra said in a message to Philstar.com.

A quo warranto proceeding is a legal remedy to determine a person’s right to a public office.

Rule 66 of the Rules of Court stipulates that the OSG or a fiscal shall initiate a petition for quo warranto in a court. 

If the court grants a petition for quo warranto, the official being assailed will be removed from office.

Guevarra previously said that the OSG will form a “special team” of solicitors that will gather the necessary evidence through different government agencies such as the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the Department of Education, the Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA on June 26 said that they had already endorsed the cancellation of Guo’s certificate of live birth, which was found to be full of irregularities, such as incorrect information about her parents' nationalities, based on the findings that surfaced during the Senate hearings. 

Comelec Chairman George Garcia also said that the poll body is mulling to file an election offense case against Guo.

Garcia mentioned that the quo warranto petition could be used to determine whether Guo misrepresented information in her certificate of candidacy when she ran for Bamban mayor in the 2022 elections.

"If the violation was committed in 2022, it has not reached five years yet. Therefore, we still have jurisdiction in filing a case. If you evaded administrative liability, this does not mean you are spared from criminal liability," Garcia said in an interview with the members of the press on Monday.

The Bamban mayor’s Filipino citizenship is under scrutiny due to her alleged ties to an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator firm.

Guo has consistently stated that she was born in Tarlac City, Tarlac, a detail also listed as her birthplace in her certificate of candidacy.

However, it was revealed on June 27, through the National Bureau of Investigation's database, that the fingerprints of the Bamban mayor and a Chinese national named Guo Hua Ping matched.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros previously said that the NBI's confirmation of the fingerprint match between Guo and Guo Hua Ping is the strongest evidence so far that could be used to oust Guo from her position.

The Bamban mayor and other local government officials are also facing non-bailable qualified trafficking charges before the Department of Justice which were filed by the Philippine National Police–Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission on June 21.