EDITORIAL
A creeping invasion?
The plot thickens in the tale of a farm girl, the
love child of a Chinese boss and his Filipino
household helper, who rose into power in Bamban,
Tarlac.
After Mayor Alice Guo’s display of selective
amnesia during the Senate investigation left the
senators facing a blank wall, Senator Sherwin
Gatchalian presented to the media evidence that
Guo and Chinese passport-holder Guo Hua Ping are
the same person, who used both Philippine and
Chinese passports to travel between 2008 and 2011.
Guo’s lawyer complained that this is a trial by
publicity, and as all lawyers would say in defense of
their clients, let the accusers prove their allegations.
“If they have strong evidence that Alice Guo and
Guo Hua Ping are one and the same, they should
present it in the proper forum so we can answer. It’s
hard to respond to publicity like that.”
Just this Friday, the Presidential Anti-Organized
Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine
National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection
Group (PNP-CIDG) filed a qualified human trafficking
complaint against suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor
Alice Guo at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Although news reports did not give a detailed
narration on how the crime was committed, PAOCC
said that in one of the corporations, they found a
document wherein the name of Mr. Dennis Cunanan
appeared. After piecing together the pieces of
evidence, they concluded, and they decided that he
is part of the grand conspiracy to commit labor
trafficking.
The local community in Bamban, Tarlac, might
have yet to see something questionable regarding
Guo’s citizenship and qualifications as a local official.
After all, a substantial percentage of Filipinos have
Chinese blood. The Chinese and the Filipinos have
long years of trading history, and it is not surprising
that intermarriages happen or a child is born out of
wedlock to parents with different citizenship. In
either case, our Constitution vests this child’s Filipino
citizenship, a qualification to run for public office.
This story is what Mayor Guo wants the public to
believe.
Amid the allegations that Mayor Guo’s mother
did not exist and may be a fictional character in a
falsified and late-registered birth record, Senator
Loren Legarda’s fear that the issues surrounding
Guo are not only a “very serious national concern”
but could also be “a creeping invasion” is something
that all branches of the government must work
together to quell this new kind of invasion.
While the skirmishes in the West Philippine Sea
between the Filipinos and the Chinese nationals are
something that we should be concerned about in
terms of our national security, government
authorities must give the case of Mayor Guo serious
attention and swift action. Our investigators must
work double time to gather evidence to unmask the
feared creeping invasion. As it stands now, the
burden of proving that the story of Mayor Guo is
merely fabricated lies with the government since she
has all government-issued documents to support her
Filipino citizenship. What is worrisome is that there
could be thousands more of these cases.