By Ade S. Fajardo
Land deals worth at least a billion pesos have astounded the public who follow the Senate hearings on offshore gaming operations (POGO) that were discovered in Bamban, Tarlac.
Condominium buildings, villas worth at least P40 million each, luxury vehicles seldom seen in the streets of Makati, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and a shopping mall were what confronted the authorities when they raided a POGO hub on the strength of a search warrant issued upon the complaint of a Vietnamese citizen who said he was tortured or maltreated in the compound.
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POGOs require a letter of no objection (LONO) from the local government. The LGU concerned must thus exercise utmost diligence in ensuring that the applicant is not engaged in fraud, detentions, torture, and other crimes.
The LONO applicant in this case is none other than the sitting Mayor of Bamban, Tarlac.
Mayor Alice Guo is the woman of the hour — a successful first-time politician who won the votes in 2022 despite having registered as a voter in that town only a year earlier.
It is not clear where she voted in the prior years, or if she was ever registered as such a voter anywhere else in the Philippines.
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Running as an independent, she bested four other candidates who were backed by political parties. She is said to have joined the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) after winning the elections.
The fact of her birth does not seem to be established. Mayor Guo claims to have been born at her home in Tarlac, but she cannot recall its exact location.
Her father is Angelito Guo, alleged to be a Filipino, but commercial documents indicate that he is Chinese national Jiang Zhong Guo. Her mother is a woman surnamed Leal, but Mayor Guo claims she did not grow up with her.
Curiously, Mayor Guo’s birth was not registered as soon as she was delivered. It was registered when she was already 17 years old.
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The certificate of birth is the legal proof of an individual’s identity. Legal rights such as a claim for support or inheritance proceed from the ancestry expressed in the document.
It also establishes age that can qualify a citizen for certain rights and privileges, such as the right to vote or be voted upon, get a driver’s license, contract marriage, etc.
The registration of births is such solemn duty that it is required to be done within 30 days by the hospital administrator, the clinic midwife or by either or both parents in cases of deliveries outside of the hospital environment.
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The birth of a child is a vital event. Reporting it beyond the period provided for by law is a delayed registration.
Further Senate hearings will likely draw out the affidavit of delayed registration which should contain a parent’s reasons for not registering Mayor Gou’s birth within the period set by law.
There are several other requirements, among which is the affidavit of disinterested persons who might have witnessed the birth of the child.
Is it truly a case of delayed registration or was falsification involved?/WDJ