NBI bares ‘matching’ fingerprints of Mayor Guo, Chinese businesswoman

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Thursday that a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) report confirmed that the fingerprints of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo and a certain Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese businesswoman, “matched.”

During the resumption of the Senate inquiry on human trafficking at illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in Tarlac on Wednesday, the senator raised the possibility that Guo “stole” the identity of the “real” Alice Leal Guo.

“Ibig sabihin (It meant that), they are the fingerprints of one and the same person. Mayor Alice, walang sikretong hindi nabubunyag (no secret can be hidden forever),” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“This confirms what I have suspected all along. ‘Mayor Alice’ is a fake Filipino — or should I say, Guo Hua Ping, is a Chinese national masquerading as a Filipino citizen to facilitate crimes being committed by POGO,” she said.

Hontiveros added, “This is a big insult to the voters of Bamban, to our government institutions, and to every Filipino,” said the chairman of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality conducting the probe.

“This is the most serious evidence to unseat Mayor Alice from her post,” Hontiveros said as she lauded the NBI, under Director Jaime Santiago, for its swift action.

“I call on the Office of the Solicitor General to expedite its filing of a quo warranto case against her. She should be held accountable for all the crimes she committed and her POGO hub [in Tarlac],” she said.

“This revelation is not the end. Guo Hua Ping, soon, we will know the full extent of your deception,” Hontiveros said, addressing Guo.

The senator said the committee will continue its investigation on the alleged social ills brought by illegal POGOs in the country. “We will dig deeper and locate the systemic roots of our POGO problem,” she said.