Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo (File photo)
MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday it is now preparing to file election offense cases against suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.
In an interview, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said he would talk to their Law Department to start looking into the pieces of evidence that can be used to file poll cases against Guo.
Garcia, meanwhile, said they are awaiting the report of the Senate's investigation on the matter, as well as the quo warranto petition to be filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) against Guo.
“Syempre mas maganda din talaga na mahintay namin ang mismong Senate committee report. Ano ba ang mga nakita nila na ebidensya at syempre yung sa OSG. Pero pwede namin gawing basehan ang nilalaman ng petition for quo warranto upang makita namin meron ba talagang misrepresentation (Of course, it would be better for us to wait for the Senate committee report. What are their findings and the pieces of evidence that they have, as well as that of the OSG. But we can also use as a basis the petition for quo warrant for us to determine whether was indeed a misrepresentation)," he said.
He said this is aside from perjury and falsification cases that can possibly be filed against Guo.
He said an election offense has a five-year prescriptive period.
“Kung 2022 po ang violation, wala pang limang taon (If the violation was committed in 2022, it has not reached five years yet). Therefore, may jurisdiction pa kami na maghain ng kaso (we still have a jurisdiction for us to file a case). Kung nakaligtas ka sa (If you evaded) administrative liability, hindi ka nakakaligtas sa (you cannot be spared from) criminal liability," Garcia said.
Comelec earlier said a misrepresentation case may be filed against Guo for making false claims in her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) when she ran in the May 2022 elections.
In her COC, she declared Tarlac City, Tarlac as her place of birth, and that she has been living in the Philippines for 35 years and two months.
Last week, the National Bureau of Investigation said Guo's fingerprints matched that of a Chinese woman named Guo Hua Ping, possibly indicating that they are the same person.
Reports said Guo Hua Ping entered the Philippines in 2003 when she was just 13 years old. (PNA)
