September 14, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections is not singling out dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo for faking her election details or material misrepresentation, as several other candidates are also facing charges for the same election offense, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said yesterday.
“This clearly shows that we are not singling out mayor Alice Guo. We file misrepresentation cases on a regular basis,” Garcia said.
Comelec sources said at least 46 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) candidates and two barangay bets are facing election offense charges for misdeclaration in their Certificates of Candidacy (COCs).
Forty-one of these SK bets ran for members of SK councils while five for SK chairmanship.
The two barangay candidates ran for members of the Sangguniang Barangay.
Garcia said the same rule applies to those who would file their COCs for the May 2025 midterm elections. It’s not revealed if the candidates had won.
“Once you lie about your age, residence, voter registration, citizenship, that is considered misrepresentation. The Comelec will go after you,” Garcia said.
Last Thursday, Guo sought the dismissal of her misrepresentation case before the Comelec.
In a nine-page counter-affidavit, Guo maintained that she did not make false representation and asked the Comelec to dismiss the complaint filed by the poll body’s law department.
She said the filing of the complaint by the Comelec law department is premature since the question regarding her citizenship remains pending.
Garcia said the law department is expected to terminate the preliminary investigation following the filing of Guo’s counter-affidavit, and submit its recommendation on the complaint by next week.
Meanwhile, Garcia said the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is set to conduct a parallel assessment of the automated election system to be used in next year’s elections.
He said the poll body approved the proposal for the DOST to conduct a parallel test aside from the one to be done by an International Certification Entity (ICE).
Garcia said a parallel test also aims to determine if it is possible to do away with the ICE in the succeeding electoral exercises.
“For all we know, the DOST is fully capable to evaluate our software and hardware test,” the Comelec chief said, adding that “in the event that the parallel test is successful, a law may be passed to eliminate the ICE requirement.”
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