SEN. CHIZ Escudero cites the rules of evidence in the Senate’s disposition of the case of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.
He invokes the presumption of innocence in favor of the Mayor, whose Filipino citizenship is evidenced by her Philippine passport and certificate of candidacy that was given due course by no less than the Commission on Elections.
“It’s up to those who say otherwise to prove their allegations,” said the newly installed Senate President.
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Sen. Escudero refers to principles that can apply in an administrative, civil, or possibly criminal trial against Mayor Guo.
A quo warranto petition will likely be filed by the Office of the Solicitor, upon whom naturally rests the burden of proving that Guo lacks one of the essential requisites of holding public elective office – being a Filipino citizen.
Every lawyer knows how the burden of proof shifts in judicial and quasi-judicial proceedings. So why say it just the same?
Moreover, hearings in aid of legislation do not follow the rules of trial observed by the courts and other bodies that exercise semi judicial functions.
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Even then, the following basic facts are either expressly admitted or not disputed before the committee chaired by Sen. Risa Hontiveros:
First, Mayor Guo’s father Jian Zhong Guo is a Chinese citizen and not a Filipino as he claimed in his daughter’s birth certificate submitted to the Tarlac civil registrar.
Second, the listed mother Amelia Leal has no record of birth in the entire civil registry.
Third, there is no record of marriage between Amelia and either Jian Zhong Guo or Angelito Guo (the father’s purported Filipino name).
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Mayor Alice was constrained to admit that Jian Zhong or Angelito Guo is Chinese because there is no record of his birth as a Filipino in this country.
On the other hand, the Bureau of Immigration has submitted evidence showing that Jian has been getting in and out of the Philippines using his Chinese passport.
The mayor does not claim to be Filipino by naturalization. Since her father is Chinese, her Filipino lineage is traceable only to her mother who has no record of existence save for the name Amelia Leal.
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The birth certificate has at least two false entries: that Angelito Guo is a Filipino citizen and that he is married to one Amelia Leal.
These material misrepresentations misled the authorities into issuing the birth certificate.
Angelito Guo, the informant who processed it, may be vulnerable to a prosecution for perjury. His sworn statement was the registrar’s singular basis for the late registration.
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Alice Guo’s faulty birth record is the source document for her passport, her certificate of candidacy, and all other documents that capture rights and privileges accruing to a Filipino citizen.
Her purported mother Amelia is at this time a spirit, a phantom, or quite possibly a concoction borne by deceit and corruption.
Sen. Escudero has dodged the point of their inquiry: can riches buy Filipino blood? Is our civil registry system getting hijacked by moneyed foreign criminal syndicates?/PN
