SolGen files quo warranto case vs Guo this month

MANILA, Philippines — A quo warranto petition and another case will be filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) this month against suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, a suspected Chinese infiltrator.

“We’re just waiting for certified copies of our documentary evidence from official sources,” Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra told reporters yesterday.

A quo warranto case is a special civil action against a person who usurps, intrudes into or unlawfully holds or exercises a public office without lawful authority to act.

It is an exclusive power of the Solicitor General to remove a public official unlawfully holding public office as they are unqualified or ineligible.

The petition may be filed before a regional trial court, the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court, Guevarra said.

A favorable ruling on the quo warranto case would strip Guo of her mayoral post and may lead to the filing of other cases.

Guevarra did not reveal details of the other petition the OSG plans to file.

The OSG has a “good case” against Guo following the National Bureau of Investigation’s discovery that Guo’s fingerprints matched those of Chinese national Guo Hua Ping, he said.

The evidence “will be extremely useful” in the case but must be “tied up with other existing evidence to come up with a cohesive picture,” Guevarra said earlier.

A six-month preventive suspension has been ordered by the ombudsman against Guo after finding strong evidence on the administrative complaints filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

A non-bailable qualified human trafficking complaint has also been filed against Guo before the Department of Justice (DOJ) over the operation of Zun Yuan Technology Center, a Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) raided by authorities last March in Bamban.

Guo, former Technology and Resource Center director general Dennis Cunanan and several others have been placed under an immigration lookout bulletin order.

Prosecutors will ask the court for a precautionary hold departure order, the DOJ said earlier.

Meanwhile, former president Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday did not deny meeting Guo after a picture of them together was revealed at a Senate hearing.

Duterte said he allowed the entry of POGOs into the country since the government needed money. — Diana Lhyd Suelto