Alfredo Tolentino

Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 34 has officially confirmed former Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Leal Guo as “undoubtedly a Chinese citizen,” invalidating her 2022 election victory and disqualifying her from holding any public office in the Philippines.


In a 67-page decision dated June 27, 2025, Judge Liwliwa Hidalgo-Bucu of the Manila RTC Branch 34 granted the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), ruling that Guo’s Philippine citizenship claim was fraudulent. 

The court found that Guo is, in fact, Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national born to Chinese parents, Guo Jian Zhong and Lin Wenyi.

“Respondent Guo Hua Ping (or) Alice Leal Guo is nothing more (than) a usurper of the Office of the Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac. Such a situation posed a risk to national security, which is far more than real,” the judge said in the court decision.

The ruling came nearly a year after Guo’s dismissal from office by the Office of the Ombudsman in August 2024 for grave misconduct related to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) activities.

The court used biometric evidence in the ruling, noting it was the first time in a Philippine court that fingerprint analysis was used to establish identity in a quo warranto case. 

“[T]his is probably the first time that fingerprint evidence was admitted to determine the identity of a person and establish a link with the purported identity of another person and found them to be... the same through their fingerprints,” the court noted.

The National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) dactyloscopy division compared three fingerprint specimens in the process, two from Guo and one from a 2006 alien fingerprint card under the name Guo Hua Ping.

According to NBI fingerprint expert Dr. Alfredo Kahanding, all samples showed 15 to 16 identical ridge characteristics, confirming the two identities as the same person. 

The court deemed the evidence “infallible” and gave full acceptance to the expert testimony.

“It can…be safely concluded that Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national, assumed the identity of one Alice Leal Guo, representing herself as a Filipino citizen. Guo Hua Ping is Alice Leal Guo,” the decision read.

Further undermining Guo’s claim to Filipino citizenship, the court noted that her birth was only registered in 2005 when she was already 19. 

The court also found no records of birth, marriage, or death for her supposed parents, Angelito Guo and Amelia Leal, in the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) database.

The court also stressed that Guo’s Philippine passport and certificate of live birth are also not conclusive proof of citizenship, especially as the documents contained “dubious entries not supported by credible evidence.”

Guo and her parents were confirmed to have entered the Philippines from Fujian, China, on July 12, 1999, using Chinese passports.

Because Guo was never a legitimate candidate and “should not have been allowed in the first place to run for the said position,” the court ruled that her 2022 election win was null from the start. 

“Her disqualification was already existing at the time of the filing of her Certificate of Candidacy. It follows, therefore, that her proclamation was deemed void,” the court added.

While acknowledging her term would have ended on June 30, 2025, the court said the issue remains significant because it involves “a foreign national who circumvented the law to enter public service,” calling for the creation of new legal standards to address similar cases.

Guo’s identity and activities have been under scrutiny since May 2024, when a Senate investigation revealed her ties to Zun Yuan Technology Inc., a POGO operator in Bamban raided for alleged human trafficking and illegal detention. 

Senators Risa Hontiveros and Sherwin Gatchalian questioned her inconsistent testimonies and late birth registration, with Gatchalian later presenting immigration records that matched Guo’s profile with that of Guo Hua Ping.

Guo further drew controversy after being linked to Chinese intelligence activities when a 2024 Al Jazeera documentary featured Chinese businessman She Zhijiang, who alleged that Guo sought campaign funding from him. 

The documentary also name-dropped her confirmed Chinese name, Guo Hua Ping, and listed her address in Fujian, China, as the local office of the Chinese Communist Party.

Following her arrest in Indonesia in September 2024 and repatriation to the Philippines, Guo has remained in detention at the Pasig City Jail. 

She is currently facing 62 counts of money laundering, qualified trafficking, and other criminal charges.