‘Fake Filipino’: Investigators say Mayor Alice Guo’s fingerprints match Chinese national’s
The National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) fingerprint examination found that Guo’s fingerprints were identical to those of a woman named Guo Hua Ping, her suspected real identity, who came to the country as a teen in 2003 with a Chinese passport.
Philippine Senator Risa Hontiveros, who is leading a Senate probe into Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), revealed the information on Thursday.
“This confirms what I have suspected all along. ‘Mayor Alice’ is a fake Filipino – or should I say Guo Hua Ping. She is a Chinese national masquerading as a Filipino citizen to facilitate crimes being committed by Pogo,” she said in a statement.
Hontiveros said she has called on the country’s office of the solicitor general to expedite its filling of a quo warranto petition, which would determine her eligibility to hold public office on the basis of her citizenship.
Philippine solicitor general Menardo Guevarra said the fingerprint results could speed up the filing of the case sooner and may happen by July.
Guo had come under fire after authorities in March raided an 80,000-square-metre Pogo facility in Bamban, the town in Tarlac province where she holds the office of mayor. During the raid, nearly 700 workers were rescued and evidence of criminal activities, such as scamming operations, was uncovered.
Authorities found a billing statement and a vehicle registered to Guo’s name during the raid and later discovered that the mayor partly owned the land on which the compound was built.
Pogos are online gambling companies operating in the Philippines that cater primarily to Chinese customers. These operators have been linked to various criminal activities, including human trafficking, kidnapping, and fraud.
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