HOTSPOT
Suspension from office may be the least of Alice Guo’s worries right now, especially after the National Bureau of Investigation told senators this week that the Bamban mayor’s fingerprints and those of Chinese visitor Guo Hua Ping are “a match.”
Consequently, Guo faces removal from the office of mayor, a post that rightfully and solely belongs to a Filipino citizen, and not to any foreign citizen. She may be charged for usurpation of authority, and falsification of public documents. She stands to lose the landholdings she has bought, as only Filipino citizens have the right to own Philippine land.
Guo also faces direct contempt charges for her statements to the Senate about her identity and citizenship, despite repeated opportunities to tell the truth.
It has been reported that quo warranto proceedings may be filed, because her candidacy and her election could be argued to have been void from the start, since she is supposedly not a Filipino citizen – a basic legal requirement for being a voter, a candidate, and an elected official of the Philippines.
What the government would do now, after the sensational discoveries made in the hearings led by Senator Risa Hontiveros and the investigations by other agencies, would be crucial in bringing back faith to the sanctity of Filipino citizenship, Filipino control over state power, and the integrity of the civil registry procedures and documents. Moreover, the government should strike fear in the hearts and minds of those who break and subvert our citizenship laws. Anything less would be bad for the country and bring further dishonor to our citizenship.
Guo could have done it properly and legally by applying for naturalization, like others. But given the findings at the Senate, she apparently didn’t. There’s also no record of an act of Congress granting Philippine citizenship to Guo. Such naturalization laws are often publicized from the filing to the hearings, from the voting to the president’s signing. (The case of Canadian vlogger Kyle Jennerman easily comes to mind. He donned a barong at the widely-reported hearings and voting in the House and Senate, and happily responded to lawmakers’ questions.)
If or when Guo is deported to China, she faces prosecution there for swearing allegiance to the Philippines and the Philippine constitution, which is something prohibited under China’s own citizenship law. This, by the way, is an opportunity for Beijing to cooperate with Manila. Laws of both China and the Philippines appear to have been violated.
No self-respecting country would tolerate such a thing. A country reserves the fullest exercise of civil, political, human, economic and cultural rights to its own citizens, but especially the right to vote and to be voted. Political sovereignty is reserved exclusively to a country’s own citizens. We Filipinos, with our 15 million or so overseas workers, know this fully well. OFWs assert due process, free expression, free association and assembly, and other basic rights everywhere – but we know we could only participate in our own country’s elections.
Citizenship is an essential component that animates and gives integrity to the four elements of a state: population, territory, government and sovereignty.
Coming from diverse backgrounds, we Filipinos are the population of the Philippines. We Filipinos elect our local and national government from among ourselves, and sovereign power is held by the Filipino people and exercised over our territory. We must jealously guard this citizenship in the only country we can call our own, where we are free, and which our heroes fought hard to establish. Violations of the citizenship law should be taken seriously as they impact political offices, land ownership, and other important matters.
It would be easy for Guo’s case to incite us to fall into mindless Sinophobia, but we have to thank senators and other officials for closely following the law and for being fair to all concerned. Respect for due process and other rights, and open and civilized discussion, are the safety valves against the emergency of Sinophobia and racism.
The case of Guo – which is not yet over since she still has the right to answer the allegations against her in the Senate and other legal fora – teaches us that we cannot underestimate or look down on our Filipino citizenship and its importance in real, actual life. We may often bicker and debate on what’s happening in our country, but we do so with gusto because of the Filipino citizenship we share, hold dear and give more meaning to.