Alice Guo's Filipino citizenship lies with mother's nationality, says retired SC justice

The Filipino citizenship of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo lies with the nationality of her mother Amelia Leal Guo, a retired justice of the Supreme Court said on Monday.

According to Joseph Morong's report on "24 Oras," retired Associate Justice Vicente Mendoza said it was enough for Guo to have a Filipino mother under the 1987 Constitution.

Guo had declared in Senate hearings that her father was Chinese and that her mother was a Filipino.

"(Under the 1987 Constitution)... it is enough that a person was born of a Filipino mother. Tama na 'yun. Hindi na kailangan siya'y nag-elect ng Filipino citizenship," Mendoza told GMA Integrated News.

(That is enough. One doesn't have to elect Filipino citizenship.)

In a statement, Guo had said that she was a love child of her parents after her father made her mother, a house helper, pregnant.

Records of the Senate inquiry showed that both father and mother do not have birth records with the Philippine Statistics Authority.

He added that it was important to establish Guo’s citizenship because of national security concerns.

"In the first place, totoo bang Pilipino ang nanay niya? Kasi pwedeng 'yan ay planted lamang," Mendoza said.

"Meron ba siyang Filipino mother? Or siya ba’y isinulpot lamang at dayuhan talaga sya? ‘Yung nanay ba nya’ ipinanganak doon? Bakit walang record 'ata?” she added.

(Is it true that her mother is Filipino? She could have been just planted. Does she have a Filipino mother? Or did she just appear and is actually a foreigner? Was her mother born there? Why doesn't she have any record, it appears?)

The Office of the Solicitor General is investigating if there are sufficient grounds to file a quo warranto proceeding against Guo.

Guo's lawyer Stephen David said the mayor's camp would answer the question in the OSG's investigation. 

He added that the camp would release photos of the mayor's mother to prove that she is a Filipino.

"Pilipino ang nanay n'ya; iniwan lang sya," David told GMA Integrated News.

(Her mother is Filipino, she just left Mayor Guo.)

"Naghahanap s’ya. ‘Yun nga ‘yun sabi ko sa next hearing ilabas lahat ‘yang mga ‘yan. Meron, may mga albums,"  he added.

(I told her to release her mother's photos in the next hearing. There are photos in the albums. She is looking for it.)

David said the problem was Guo had yet to meet her mother.

"Kaya sana lumabas 'yung mother niya para ma-DNA natin," David said.

(We hope her mother would surface so we can subject her to a DNA test.) —Celine Serquiña/NB, GMA Integrated News