MANILA — As she faced the Senate for the second time, Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo was asked by Senator Loren Legarda to prove that she is Filipino.

“If you're really Chinese and fronting for other people, go back to your country. But if you are Filipino and you were born here, convince us” Legarda said. “Please convince us that you were born in the Philippines, that you are Filipino, and that you are not what people suspect you to be.”

“Ako po ay lumaki sa Barangay Virgen Delos Remedios, Bamban, Tarlac. Ako po ay isang Filipino, lumaki po ako kasama po ang mga empleyado namin sa farm,” Guo said. “Thirty-eight years ago, wala po ako talagang maalala nang sobra.”

 (I grew up in Virgen Delos Remedios village in Bamban, Tarlac. I am a Filipino, I grew up with employees of our farm. I really don’t remember much from 38 years ago.)

Bakit kinuwestyon ang pagkakakilanlan ni Bamban Mayor Alice Guo?

Legarda cut Guo off, however, saying she was repeating herself instead of giving details about ehr childhood as asked.

“You don’t have to say the same thing,” an irked Legarda remarked. “Ano ba, huwag tayong robot.”

 (Let us not be robots.)

Legarda asked Guo to speak in Kapampangan, which is commonly used in Bamban, but the mayor said she did not know much of it since they used Tagalog at home.

Guo was also asked to speak in Chinese, which she did although she said she only knows a bit of Fookien.

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Guo insisted her mother tongue is Filipino.

BIRTH CERTIFICATES

Senators also questioned the birth certificates of Guo’s parents.

Based on a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), her mother, Alice Leal who was a housekeeper of her father, does not have a birth certificate.

The father, Angelito Guo, does not have records since he is a Chinese.

“May posibilidad po hindi lang nakapagparehistro ang mga magulang ni Mayor. Pero maaari rin po at mataas ang posibilidad na hindi existing ang mga tao,” Atty. Eliezer Ambatali, Director III of PSA said.

(It is possible that her parents did not register at all. But there is also a possibility that these people do not exist.)

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Guo’s birth certificate indicated that her parents got married in 1982 and in 1987 and that they have two other children—a certain Shiela Leal Guo and Seimen Leal Guo.

Asked how that happened when Alice supposedly left Guo after giving birth to her, the mayor said she did not know.

“Your honor as much possible ayaw ko na sumagot ng ‘Hindi ko alam’ pero ‘di ako nag-prepare ng birth certificate ko po.”

 (Your honor as mush as possible I do not want to say ‘I do not know’ but I really do not know since I did not prepare my birth certificate.)

Sen. Raffy Tulfo did not believe Guo and said: “Are you not interested sa history of your family? Are you willing to undergo a lie detector test?”

 (Are you not interested in the history of your family?)

Guo answered yes.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, committee chair, meanwhile, pointed out that during the May 7 hearing, Guo said she did not know if Shiela and Seimen were her relatives.

But in documents from the Bureau of Immigration, travel logs showed the mayor travelled with Shiela a couple of times.

Guo admitted she hid this fact, “Naging sagot ko po is ‘I don’t know, hindi ko po alam’ dahil ayokong madamay pa po ang ibang tao.”

 (The reason why I said ‘I don’t know’ is because I didn’t want other people to be dragged in this.)

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Hontiveros said Guo’s birth was registered in 2005 when she was 19 years old, and not when she was 17 as she previously stated.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian truly doubts Guo’s citizenship because of what her father did when Guo’s birth was registered: “Malaking posibilidad si Mayor Guo hindi siya Pilipino…Ibig sabihin itong si Angelito Guo, nagsinungaling.”

 (There is a big possibility that Mayor Guo is not a Filipino…This means Angelito Guo lied.)

 Guo’s father will be invited to the next hearing.