By Joseph Anthony A. Damgo
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) bared yesterday it is readying the filing of election offense cases against suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo.
Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said he would be discussing with their Law Department in the coming days as they start looking into the pieces of evidence that can be used to file poll cases against Guo.
At the same time, Garcia 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.
“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 it was indeed a misrepresentation," he said, adding these are aside from possible perjury and falsification cases that can be filed against Guo.
“If the violation was committed in 2022, it has not reached five years yet. Therefore, we still have jurisdiction for us to file a case. If you evaded administrative liability, you cannot be spared from criminal liability," Garcia said, explaining that an election offense has a five-year prescriptive period
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.
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