Bamban Mayor Alice Guo: 'Lin Wen Yi is not my mother'

Embattled Bamban Mayor Alice Guo on Wednesday refuted allegations that her real mother is Chinese national Wen Yi Lin.

"May mga nagsasabing si Lin Wen Yi ang tunay kong ina. Siya po ay kasama sa mga kumpanya ng aming pamilya, ngunit si Amelia Leal ang aking ina sa lahat ng dokumento," Guo said in her letter of explanation submitted by her lawyer to the office of Senator Risa Hontiveros.

"Hindi totoo ang paratang na si Amelia leal ay isang non-existing person. Si Lin Wen Yi ay kinakasama at isang business partner ng aking ama. Hindi siya ang aking Ina," the letter continued.

(There are those saying Lin Wen Yi is my real mother. She is included in my family’s companies, but it is Amelia Leal is my mother in all of the documents.

The allegation that Amelia Leal is a non-existing person is not true. Lin Wen Yi is a companion and a business partner of my father. She is not my mother.)

Guo earlier said that she is her father's love child with their helper Amelia, who left her when she was still a child.

The Philippine Statistics Authority said they have no birth records of Guo's parents.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian previously dared Guo to undergo DNA testing with Wen Yi Lin to prove her nationality.

Guo's lawyer said the mayor is open to undergo such a test. However, it is still unclear if it will be with Wen Yi Lin or Amelia Leal.

Hontiveros has also released documents that showed that Wen Yi Lin is an incorporator in Guo's businesses.

A former consultant of Guo, however, denied that Wen Yi Lin is the mayor's biological mother.

Guo is currently being investigated by the Senate amid her alleged involvement in the operations of Zun Yuan Technology Incorporated, a POGO entity that was raided by police and the military in March for alleged illegal activities inside the Baofu Land Development Inc. compound located behind the Bamban Municipal Hall in Tarlac.

 According to Hontiveros who cited Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents, Guo is among the incorporators of Baofu.

Gatchalian earlier said his office obtained a copy of a Sangguniang Bayan resolution dated September 2020 containing the council's approval of the application made by Guo, who was then a private citizen, for the license to operate Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc.

The Hongsheng establishment was raided by authorities in February 2023. The same compound was then used by Zun Yuan Technology when it was raided in the Baofu compound in March 2024.

The Office of the Ombudsman has suspended Guo and two other local government officials for up to six months after the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) filed graft complaints against Guo over her reported involvement with the POGO hub in her town.—RF, GMA Integrated News