Metro Manila, Philippines – A local court has stripped a dismissed mayor – in the spotlight for illegal offshore gambling links – of her citizenship for irregularities in late birth registration, an official said on Friday, Oct. 3.
National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa told a Senate budget hearing that the Tarlac City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 111 voided ex-Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s Certificate of Live Birth on Sept. 24.The Office of the Solicitor General filed the petition to cancel Guo’s birth certificate in July 2024 in line with the recommendation of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which found questionable late birth registration entries. “This is good news for the Philippine government, Philippine Statistics Authority na napakita po at nai-declare ng RTC na void po yung birth registration ni Alice Guo,” Mapa said.[Translation: This is good news for the Philippine government and the PSA, as the RTC has declared Alice Guo’s birth registration void.]Guo has been detained at the Pasig City Jail and facing multiple charges including money laundering, qualified trafficking, and graft.Her case triggered a wider review of suspected fraudulent birth registrations. The PSA earlier recommended the cancellation of 1,472 certificates, including that of Guo. It recently identified 50,000 more potentially problematic records, including 840 flagged as “highly irregular,” with two from Pikit, North Cotabato already endorsed for cancellation, Mapa said. Senator Win Gatchalian, who was among those who led the Senate probe on Guo, said the irregularities could not have been clerical errors, and called them deliberate and malicious. He asked if any government personnel had been held accountable.
