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Guo, who is accused of faking her Filipino identity, is being sued by the Comelec for supposedly lying in the certificate of candidacy she submitted for the 2022 elections
MANILA, Philippines – Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo insisted on the validity of her successful candidacy in the 2022 elections in a last-minute appeal to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday, September 12.
In her counter-affidavit filed on the day of the deadline, Guo asked the poll body to dismiss the case it had filed against her for alleged material misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy (COC).
Guo, who is accused of faking her Filipino identity, is being sued for supposed violation of Section 74 of the Omnibus Election Code, which states that an aspirant for elective office must use their baptized name or the name registered with the local civil registrar.
“When I filed my certificate of candidacy, I have made declarations on my personal information, such as my citizenship and domicile, on the basis of the legitimate documents in my possession — which documents were issued by the Philippine government and which remain valid and existing since the time I filed my COC and still as of this writing,” Guo said.
In its complaint, the Comelec said Guo’s declarations in her COC were inconsistent with a document from the National Bureau of Investigation which had the former mayor’s fingerprints even though the name listed is Guo Hua Ping.
The poll body used as basis for its claims the fingerprint examinations conducted by the Comelec’s election records and statistics department and the NBI forensics and scientific research service.
“This is an unwarranted and unmerited conclusion considering that there was no opportunity given to me to authenticate the said examination results, the procedure on how they came about the results, the source documents that were in the examination, as well as the produced documents,” Guo replied.
“I was not given the chance to check, verify, and validate if there was no room for alteration and manipulation in the said examination and documentation. Stated otherwise, the said results were unilaterally made, in violation of mv right to due process,” she added.
The commission also questioned Guo’s Filipino citizenship, saying she has yet to prove she has renounced her Chinese citizenship, and abandoned her domicile in China.
But Guo, in her counter-affidavit, insisted that she is a holder of a Philippine birth certificate, and a valid Comelec voter certificate proving she is a registered voter of Bamban.
“The intimate correlation between and among the cases filed against me, questioning my citizenship and identity, and the instant case, also assailing the same, primarily depends on the issue of whether or not I am a Filipino. Hence, until and unless a court of competent jurisdiction declares otherwise, logic and pragmatism dictate that this case be dismissed for having been prematurely and unnecessarily filed,” Guo said.
In a statement, Comelec Chairman George Garcia welcomed Guo’s filing of a counter-affidavit.
“Filing the counter affidavit is a recognition of the exercise of jurisdiction of the Comelec. Now, we can terminate the preliminary investigation and proceed to the resolution of the controversy,” Garcia said.
Guo has become a national pariah after the discovery of her ties to an illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) in her hometown unearthed serious questions about her identity and citizenship.
She has been facing a deluge of legal battles: the Ombudsman dismissed her from service due to grave misconduct related to her POGO connections, a trial court is handling her graft case, the Senate has twice cited her in contempt, and the Solicitor General wants to have her birth certificate nullified, among other challenges.
Guo fled the Philippines in July, but Indonesian authorities captured her in early September, leading to her deportation to Manila. She is currently under the custody of Philippine police. – Rappler.com
