Comelec Initiates Investigation into Mayor Alice Guo’s 2022 Election Candidacy

TARLAC — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has established a fact-finding committee to scrutinize the candidacy of Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo in the May 2022 national elections, amid allegations of misrepresentation.

According to Philippines News Agency, a memorandum issued on July 6 by Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia, the committee is tasked with determining whether there was material misrepresentation in Guo’s certificate of candidacy (COC), which could potentially lead to election offense charges. The memo, which was made public on Monday, directs the committee to work closely with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Office of the Solicitor General, and the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations, and Gender Equality to gather further details on the case.

The investigation follows a report from the NBI indicating that Guo’s fingerprints matched those of Guo Hua Ping, a Chinese national who first entered the Philippines in 2003 at the age of 13. The committee will also conduct a technical analysis of documents and fingerprints associated with the name Alice Guo to assess her potential culpability. Chairperson Garcia highlighted that if the evidence supports it, the committee will recommend the filing of an election offense case against Mayor Guo, who, in her COC, claimed to have been born in Tarlac, Tarlac, and resided in the Philippines for 35 years and two months as of the 2022 election filing.