The Commission on Elections said suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo will be compelled to appear before the poll body to respond to a charge for alleged misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy.
“Suspended Bamban Mayor Alice Guo will be required to appear before Comelec once it files an election case against her,” Comelec chairman George Garcia said.
He said the Comelec is waiting for the report that will come out of the Senate Women Committee’s ongoing inquiry into the country’s POGOs as well as the Office of the Solicitor General’s plan to file a quo warranto petition against Guo.
“When one answers an allegation, filing a counter-affidavit is a requirement, and the lawyer cannot do that because the accused has to swear to it. It should be the accused who should file and swear to the authenticity of the affidavit,” Garcia said.
The Comelec chief added they can use the basis for the petition for quo warranto to assess if Guo committed misrepresentation in her certificate of candidacy when she ran for the position of Bamban mayor in the 2022 elections.
Guo, who has not been seen in public for several days, has repeatedly claimed to have been born in Tarlac City, Tarlac, which is also the location she declared as her place of birth in her certificate of candidacy.
Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros clapped back on Guo or Guo Hua Ping, who tried to justify her excuses in skipping the previous Senate hearings by going to social media, asking why public officials and government offices seemed “fixated” on her.
“Don’t worry, we are not fixated on you. We are just allergic to liars,” Hontiveros responded in a statement released Friday.
Guo is being scrutinized for her alleged ties to an illegitimate POGO in Bamban. She is also being questioned for allegedly assuming a Filipino identity, so she could run for public office.
The mayor said she chose not to attend the hearings because she was prioritizing her health and peace of mind, to which Hontiveros replied: “How can you have peace of mind when you keep evading questions?”
Senate President Francis Escudero also scored Guo for her social media post, saying she is not in any position to what should and should not be the senators’ priorities.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline Comelec to require Guo appearance over looming misrepresentation charge
