MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday that it already endorsed the cancellation of suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s certificate of live birth to the Office of Solicitor General.
“We [have] already endorsed to the Office of the Solicitor General for canceling the [Certificate of Live Birth] COLB,” said Marizza Grande, Assistant National Statistician of PSA’s Civil Registration Service.
During the Senate inquiry on the raided Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) hub where the suspended Bamban Mayor is linked, Grande said that the agency has “no power” to cancel a certificate of live birth if the process of its registration was “irregular.”
“The PSA has no power to automatically cancel even if it finds irregular process in the registration,” she said.
Grande likewise noted that the PSA found Guo’s late birth registration irregular.
Senator Risa Hontiveros was presiding over the hearing.
“You have confirmed that her birth certificate was obtained fraudulently or irregularly, considering there were almost no attachments when it was submitted apart from a negative certificate from NSO [National Statistics Authority],” Hontiveros said in Filipino.
‘Floating identity’
Grande noted during the hearing that if Guo’s certificate of live birth is canceled, the suspended official’s identity will be tagged as “floating.”
“Technically, her identity is floating because she is a government official, and her Filipino citizenship is being questioned,” she said.
Earlier this May, the case of Guo began making rounds online following her alleged involvement in POGO operations in Bamban Tarlac. The embattled mayor denied claims of her linkages in POGO operations but her case escalated after critical scrutiny of inconsistencies regarding the mayor’s identity.
