The Commission on Election (Comelec) serves the subpoena against suspended Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo for material representation on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. (Photo by Office of the Chairman George Erwin Garcia/Comelec)
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued on Tuesday a subpoena against suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo for alleged material misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy in the 2022 elections.
Last Tuesday, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia announced that the Comelec en banc unanimously approved the recommendation of the Law Department to file charges against Guo for misrepresentation.
READ: Comelec OKs filing of complaint vs Alice Guo for misrepresentation
However, Assistant Regional Election Director for Comelec Region III Atty. Elmo Duque confirmed that Guo was not in her residence when they attempted to serve the subpoena.
While her caretaker was there to receive it, Comelec personnel went to the Office of the Mayor to inform her through a “competent office” of the existence of a preliminary investigation conducted against her.
“To satisfy the process na mainform siya (to inform her) of the existence of a preliminary investigation, the determination of probable cause against her, pumunta tayo sa kanyang opisina (we went to her office), which is as good, of course, as her residence and so far as she is a public official. And we served to a competent person in charge of her office,” said Duque in an ambush interview.
Duque said that the person in charge who received the subpoena was Alice Manaloto, secretary of the acting mayor. Duque clarified that “the law does not make any distinction whether it is her own staff or the law provides that the competent person in the office is working in the Office of the Mayor.”
According to Duque, Guo has to file her answer within 10 days starting Wednesday, adding that “she is notified of the process against her, and therefore it is a waiver on her part if she would not respond to the subpoena that is issued to her and the complaint that is attached against alongside with the documents that support the complaint that is filed against her.”
READ: Mayor Alice Guo is also Chinese woman Guo Hua Ping, NBI confirms
According to the subpoena issued to Guo, she violated Section 74 in relation to Section 262 of the Omnibus Election Code which says: “The certificate of candidacy shall state that the person filing it is announcing his candidacy for the office stated therein and that he is eligible for said office; if for Member of the Batasang Pambansa, the province, including its component cities, highly urbanized city or district or sector which he seeks to represent; the political party to which he belongs; civil status; his date of birth; residence; his post office address for all election purposes; his profession or occupation.
“[T]hat he will support and defend the Constitution of the Philippines and will maintain true faith and allegiance thereto; that he will obey the laws, legal orders, and decrees promulgated by the duly constituted authorities; that he is not a permanent resident or immigrant to a foreign country; that the obligation imposed by his oath is assumed voluntarily, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that the facts stated in the certificate of candidacy are true to the best of his knowledge,” it continued.
In June, the National Bureau of Investigation confirmed that the fingerprints of Mayor Alice Guo and Chinese citizen Guo Hua Ping were a match. Only natural-born Filipinos or foreign nationals who became naturalized Filipino citizens are allowed by Comelec to file candidacy in the local elections.
The citizenship of Guo was questioned by Senator Risa Hontiveros where her birth was registered late in 2013, 17 years after she was supposedly born in 1986. The suspended mayor is also under investigation for her alleged ties to illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators.