SOLGEN MOVES TO CANCEL MAYOR GUO’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE

THE Office of the Solicitor General on Friday filed a petition before the Tarlac Regional Trial Court (RTC) asking to cancel the birth certificate of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said the petition for the cancellation of the certificate of live birth of Alice Leal Guo is based on her “failure to comply with the legal requirements for late registration.”

Guevarra cited “glaring inconsistencies” between the entries in Guo’s birth certificate and information contained in other public records.

“This will lay the groundwork for the subsequent filing of a petition for quo warranto,” Guevarra said.

The Solicitor General explained that quo warranto is a legal action to resolve a dispute over whether a person has the legal right to hold public office.

According to Guevarra, if Mayor Guo’s birth certificate is canceled, she will lose her most important defense evidence about her identity.

The Solicitor General said Guo’s alleged foreign citizenship would be addressed separately in the quo warranto petition.

“The petition for cancellation is not a precondition for the filing of the quo warranto petition, which can stand alone on the basis of existing evidence. but the two petitions complement each other,” he explained.

Guevarra also said the local civil registrar who registered the suspended mayor’s certificate of birth may be held administratively liable for violation of existing PSA/NSO (National Statistics Office) mandatory rules on late registration.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday started its preliminary investigation into the  qualified human trafficking complaint filed against Guo and 13 others.

The case stemmed from the criminal complaint field before the DOJ over Guo and the others alleged involvement in the operation of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) hub in Bamban, Tarlac which was raided by the authorities last March.

The complaint was filed by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) before the DOJ on June 21.

The Bamban mayor failed to attend the preliminary investigation.