The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has recommended the cancellation of Bamban Mayor Alice Guo’s birth certificate to the Office of the Solicitor General, an official of the primary statistical arm of the government disclosed on Wednesday, June 26.
Marizza B. Grande, Assistant National Statistician Civil Registration Office, informed the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality over the agency’s decision after it found out that the filing of the documents for late registration for both Alice Leal Guo and her supposed sibling Shiela Leal Guo, was highly irregular.
“We already endorsed to the Office of the Solicitor General for the cancellation of the copy (of their Certificate of Live Birth) because the PSA has no power to automatically cance once they see there is an irregular process in the registration,” Grande said during the continuation of the Senate’s hearing on the illegal activities of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) in the country.
Grande explained to the committee that based on the investigation of the PSA’s Fraud and Management Division, in coordination with the Tarlac Local Civil Registry Office, what was found was only the negative certificate issued by the National Statistics Office (NSO) as part of the supporting documents.
She pointed out that based on their records, only the negative certification of birth were presented under Alice Guo’s COLB, and in the case of her sister, Shiela, is the only sole supporting documented submitted for delayed registration.
“So in fact, we also observed that the negative certification was issued after the document was prepared by the staff of the local civil registry office,” the official said.
Responding to Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ question on how the PSA regards the status of Guo now that they have found out that her COLB was fraudulently or irregularly acquired, considering the lack of supporting documents and the negative certificates, Grande said the mayor’s identity is now on a “floating status.”
“Technically, madam, her identity is floating because she is an official of the government and her Filipino citizenship is now being questioned,” Grande said.
Grande also said that the PSA is now investigating similar cases of irregular or dubious filing of COLBs to ascertain whether there is a syndicate operating within the agency and to reduce cases of fraudulent birth certificates.
“As regards to the issue on the syndicate (inside the PSA), it is hard to say but we have cases that are now under ongoing investigation related to othis fraudulent registrations as source, and not only that, even the tampering of documents,” she said.
“So we already sent updates on this to our committee and we ensure that the PSA is doing its part to really investigate if there is really a syndicate,” she stressed.
The PSA, she said, is also doing its best to strengthen its fraud management division together with the local government unit (LGU) who are directly supervising their local civil registry.
Grande also said the PSA is also enlisting the help of other related government agencies to maintain the integrity of the documents being released by the agency.
“We conduct validation-channeling—not only with other government agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
“So all end-users of our documents are submitting to us, if they have questions related to the security papers that are being sent and we are doing that and we develop also to strengthen our system to make it automated,” she further stressed.