Allegations that Guo lied on nationality unproven – lawyer

MANILA, Philippines — The lawyer of suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo yesterday defended his client, saying the allegations that Guo was lying about her nationality have yet to be proven in court.

Lawyer Stephen David said in an interview with ANC that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) finding that Guo’s fingerprints matched those of Chinese woman Guo Hua Ping is a piece of evidence that needs to be presented in court.

“First your conclusion that she is lying is just your opinion. Probably, you are basing that on the report of the NBI. But right now, these things are not yet verified. In fact, we have not even encountered or… we have not even seen these documents,” David said.

He added that there is a process to declare documents as authentic or fake.

“If the NBI, if the complainants believe that these documents are their evidence, and then naturally, they will be presenting these before the honorable court or before the proper forum and it will only by then that we will be able to comment on this because we will be able to identify them, to examine them, to see if they are duly executed, authentic documents,” David said.

The NBI declared in its dactyloscopy report released yesterday that the fingerprints of Guo and Guo Hua Ping are identical – establishing that they are the same person. The conclusion came after a comparative examination and analysis by the NBI Organized and Transnational Crime Division.

“Right now what you are saying is that she is lying. We have no proof of that. Only the court will tell us that Mayor Alice is lying, not anyone. That is the danger of public trial. We have already concluded that she is lying. We have not even reached that far,” David lamented.

According to the NBI, the examination was conducted on June 25 to 27 at its Dactyloscopy Division in Quezon City. Specimens used were those of Guo Hua Ping – affixed on the Alien Fingerprint Card retrieved from the NBI master files and dated March 28, 2006 – and the fingerprints of Guo as affixed on the biometric printout from the NBI Information and Communication Technology Division, with a transaction date of March 10, 2021.

The report concluded that the fingerprints of Guo Hua Ping y Lin and Alice Leal Guo were affixed by the same person, confirming that Alice Leal Guo and Guo Hua Ping are one and the same.

Meanwhile, David said that the camp of Guo will await the next action of the Office of the Solicitor General which vowed to file a quo warranto petition even as another case will be filed by the OSG this month against  Guo.

“First, we do not have our own recourse but we will be expecting of course the action of the OSG and by then we will be responding, answering all of these allegations against her in the proper forum. On our part, we have nothing to do right now but to wait for them to institute these cases which they alleged to be filing against Mayor Guo,” David added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian clarified yesterday that the suspended Bamban mayor is not eligible to be a state witness because of her crucial role in illicit POGO activities.

He was reacting to the story in The STAR yesterday that Guo can serve as government witness and testify against members of the syndicate behind the illegal offshore gaming activities in Porac, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac.

“She cannot because she is not the least guilty. She is at the center of the Hongsheng POGO hub by applying for the Letter of No Objection and other LGU permits,” Gatchalian said.

The senator was referring to Hongsheng Gaming Technology that was raided last year and was replaced by Zun Yuan Technology, the subject of the latest raid against illegal POGO activities in Bamban, Tarlac under Mayor Guo’s watch.

Gatchalian said he did not categorically state that Guo can be a state witness.

Gatchalian earlier revealed that not only did Guo’s fingerprints match that of Guo Hua Ping, but that her brother Wesley also matched the fingerprints of Chinese national Guo Xiang Dian.

He accused the two Guos of interchangeably using both their Philippine and Chinese passports in their trips abroad.

Authorities are uncovering more details of how the Guo family entered the Philippines from China using a special investor’s resident visa, and then registered themselves as Filipino by abusing the late birth registration rule.