A Chinese national with a “Guo” family name has been arrested by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in Bohol for posing as a Filipino.
In a statement on Monday, Feb. 23, BI Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado identified the Chinese national as Guo Jinjin, 48, who was arrested last Feb. 17 in Barangay Tawala in Panglao town.
Viado said the bureau’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) BI-FSU found Guo in possession of a professional driver’s license issued by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) that identified him as a Filipino citizen despite his being a Chinese national based on immigration records.
He also said that BI records show that Guo last entered the Philippines in 2018 under a Special Resident Retiree’s Visa (SRRV), while the LTO confirmed the Chinese national holds a professional driver’s license that is valid until February 2032.
“Acquiring government identification by falsely claiming Filipino citizenship is not a minor technical violation — it is a direct affront to our sovereignty and our laws,” Viado stressed.
“If you fabricate your identity to do business, acquire privileges, or blend into our communities, it is already a violation and expect that you will face the necessary sanctions,” he warned.
Guo is now detained at the BI’s facility pending deportation proceedings.
It can be recalled that former mayor Alice L. Guo of Bamban, Tarlac has been found to be a Chinese national. She was unseated as a town chief executive.
The former mayor is currently imprisoned at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City after Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 167 promulgated a decision last December that found her and her co-accused guilty of qualified trafficking in persons and other trafficking-related offenses linked to an illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) in Bamban town.