Dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo at the resumption of the Senate hearing on Pogo hub on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — 1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez accused dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo of lying about her age and childhood.
At the second half of the House of Representatives quad committee hearing on Friday, Gutierrez revealed that Guo’s classmates at Grace Christian School were his college friends who were born in 1991 or 1992. Guo has been claiming she was born in 1986.
The lawmaker confronted the ousted Tarlac town mayor with a class photo that supposedly shows a young Guo and asked her about it. But Guo declined to answer, invoking her right against self-incrimination – which Gutierrez deemed as a sign that she was lying.
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“Although this might be hearsay for the committee, pero ako po personally I hope you’d understand, ‘di po ako naniniwala sa story na kayo po ay sa Tarlac from (age) zero to 38. Ms. Guo, while waiting for that po, you say you were born in 1986, tama po ba?” Gutierrez said. “That puts you at, how old are you now po?”
(Although this might be hearsay for the committee, but I hope you’ll understand that I do not believe the story that you are from Tarlac from age zero to 38. Ms. Guo, while waiting for that, you say you were born in 1986, is that correct?)
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“Yes po, Your Honor, 38,” Guo replied. “Your Honor, I hope you understand, there are so many cases filed against me before the courts; that’s why anything I will say here might be used against me po.”
“Well I think that’s why I have a tendency not to believe you, because if that really is not you, I think you would have said that’s not you,” Gutierrez added.
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Class photo
Gutierrez showed Guo the class photo again, and said he knew some of the people in that image since her batchmates at the Grace Christian School were his college friends.
“Why do I not believe that? I can identify two of the people behind you, magka-batch po tayo, Ms. Guo. I know what year this was taken, and they have a description of you — no’ng pumasok ka po sa Grace, napaka-thick po ng accent ninyo, Mandarin lang ang kaya niyong salitain, but you were very friendly and you were very makulit,” Gutierrez said.
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(Why do I not believe that? I can identify two of the people behind you; we are of the same batch, Ms. Guo. I know what year this was taken, and they have a description of you — when you entered Grace, you had a thick accent, and you were only able to speak Mandarin, but you were very friendly and very playful.)
“That’s why they had a hard time to forget you even though you stayed there up to Grade 3 only. Now I know, like I said, that’s hearsay as far as the committee’s concerned because the one with personal knowledge is not here, but when I was talking to that person with personal knowledge, I was convinced that they’ve identified you,” he added.
According to Gutierrez, if Guo is 38 years old now, that would make her 14 years old when the class photo was taken. However, this does not seem to be the case, as Guo’s frame appears similar to other children in the class picture.
Guo Hua Ping
Gutierrez also noted that Guo’s classmates called her Ping, which bears semblance to her Chinese name as discovered by the National Bureau of Investigation, Guo Hua Ping.
“In fact, if you are 38, and this picture was [from] 2001, you would have been 13, 14 po ba? But you look the same age here — these people were born ’91, ’92? You are of the same size, that’s why I don’t think you’re that much older than them and that’s why I don’t buy that story that you were born in 1986,” he noted.
“In fact, they called you Ping; Ping po ‘yong nickname niyo dito,” he added.
Guo’s schooling history was one of the topics discussed in the initial portions of the Senate hearing on the raided Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) hub in Bamban town in Tarlac province, as senators were skeptical of her personal details.
Guo then claimed that she was homeschooled by a certain Teacher Rubilyn, who can no longer be invited to the hearing as she died years ago.
However, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian revealed last July 10 that he and Guo attended the same school, citing documents presented to the Senate committee on women.
“We were tipped off that apparently Guo Hua Ping or Alice Guo didn’t grow up on a farm. She was not homeschooled. She went to school, and I’ll show you the proof,” he said.
“Since her real name was revealed in the hearings, we found out that she studied in the same school as I did, Grace Christian High School. For Grades 1, 2, and 3,” he added.
Pogo hub
Guo has maintained several times that she was not linked to the Pogo hub in Bamban. But the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) accused her of having business interests in Baofu, which owns the land where the raided Pogo sits.
DILG said Baofu, as represented by Guo who was president of the company, purchased eight parcels of land in Bamban last February 2019.
Guo claimed to have divested ownership of Baofu when she ran for mayor, but the DILG believes the amount she divested it for — P2.5 million — was “grossly incongruent to her investment on Baufo which is approximately eight hectares of land.”
This issue became the basis of cases against Guo, for which she was placed on preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman.