At the request of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Ombudsman this week ordered the suspension of Bamban town Mayor Alice Leal Guo.
Bamban is a small town in the Central Luzon province of Tarlac. Guo was elected mayor in 2022 in her first foray into politics.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires signed the suspension order on May 31, placing the Mayor under six-month preventive suspension without pay.
Martires said the suspension was resorted to “considering that there is strong evidence showing their guilt.” Besides Guo, the town’s legal officer Adenn Sigua and its business permits licensing officer Edwin Ocampo were meted the same punishment.
The suspension orders on the trio were served on June 3.
The DILG had earlier filed graft raps against Guo and the two other local executives of Bamban.
Guo is the subject of an ongoing Senate investigation after she not only became mayor under suspicious circumstances but also approved the opening of a Philippine Overseas Gaming Operation (POGO) in her town.
For allowing the POGO to operate, the DILG last week filed charges of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service against the three.
Local Government Sec. Benjamin Abalos said the preventive suspension was necessary so Guo could not influence the investigation launched against her.
A seven-man team from the DILG found that Guo had links to the POGO in Bamban. For one, it was located in a property that she owns.
Abalos said the team’s report contained “troubling findings if serious illegal acts that may have severe legal implications.”
Due to her unexplained wealth, the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) also said it was filing a tax evasion case against her.
PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio told local media they had discovered “violations related to tax evasion” allegedly committed by Guo.
He said the amount involved was believed to be “significant.”
Guo said she was a “simple” person who only owned a piggery.
She, however, could not explain how she became so rich as to own a helicopter as well as a multi-million peso Maclaren sports car.
Guo’s background was unclear after she gave apparently contradictory statements. While insisting that she is a Filipino, she admitted that her father is Chinese.
As for her mother, she claimed that she was a love child born out of a Filipino domestic helper and her Chinese father.
Her background remains shrouded in mystery after she claimed that she was “born in a farm,” which is why her birth was not registered until she was 17.
She also claims to have been home schooled as her reason for not having school records. Guo said she only made it to high school, after which she went into business.
Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he had suspicions regarding Guo as she “came out of nowhere,” besides which “nobody knows her.”
The Philippine Statistics Authority said its records show that Guo’s birth did not have supporting documents. She was reportedly born on July 12, 1986.
It was Sen. Risa Hontiveros who called for the Senate investigation on the mayor. In her testimonies, Guo claimed she could remember little of her past, except to repeat that she grew up in a farm.
Initially, she could not even mention the name of any of her teachers who homeschooled her. She later said the teacher’s name was Rubilyn.
Guo said her father’s name is Jian Zhong Guo AKA Angelito Guo, while her mother was Amelia Leal. Authorities have not been able to trace either parent.
