Allegations that Guo lied on nationality unproven – lawyer

MANILA, Philippines — The lawyer of suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo yesterday defended his client, saying the allegations that Guo was lying about her nationality have yet to be proven in court.

Lawyer Stephen David said in an interview with ANC that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) finding that Guo’s fingerprints matched those of Chinese woman Guo Hua Ping is a piece of evidence that needs to be presented in court.

“First your conclusion that she is lying is just your opinion. Probably, you are basing that on the report of the NBI. But right now, these things are not yet verified. In fact, we have not even encountered or… we have not even seen these documents,” David said.

He added that there is a process to declare documents as authentic or fake.

“If the NBI, if the complainants believe that these documents are their evidence, and then naturally, they will be presenting these before the honorable court or before the proper forum and it will only by then that we will be able to comment on this because we will be able to identify them, to examine them, to see if they are duly executed, authentic documents,” David said.

The NBI declared in its dactyloscopy report released yesterday that the fingerprints of Guo and Guo Hua Ping are identical – establishing that they are the same person. The conclusion came after a comparative examination and analysis by the NBI Organized and Transnational Crime Division.

“Right now what you are saying is that she is lying. We have no proof of that. Only the court will tell us that Mayor Alice is lying, not anyone. That is the danger of public trial. We have already concluded that she is lying. We have not even reached that far,” David lamented.

According to the NBI, the examination was conducted on June 25 to 27 at its Dactyloscopy Division in Quezon City. Specimens used were those of Guo Hua Ping – affixed on the Alien Fingerprint Card retrieved from the NBI master files and dated March 28, 2006 – and the fingerprints of Guo as affixed on the biometric printout from the NBI Information and Communication Technology Division, with a transaction date of March 10, 2021.

The report concluded that the fingerprints of Guo Hua