With the filing of certificates of candidacy (CoCs) just a few days from now, Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairperson George Erwin Garcia has cited that stricter rules would help prevent material misrepresentation like what happened in the case of dismissed Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, who has been found to be a Chinese nation with the real name Guo Hua Ping).

“I hope our laws will be amended and let the Comelec have discretion in accepting certificates of candidacy. That is the present state of things when it comes to the filing of candidacy,” Garcia enthused at the Kapihan sa Manila Prince Hotel hosted by former senator Jose ‘Joey’ Lina and Manila Bulletin publisher Herminio ‘Sonny’ Coloma Jr.

In reply, Lina pointed out that “the solution lies with Congress to enact a law that will make it difficult or impossible for any impostor (to assume) Filipino citizenship.”

The Comelec chair expressed agreement, saying there should be additional requirements aside from the CoC but he added that “the Comelec cannot add qualification to what is not provided for by the Constitution.”

Garcia also admitted that there were many cases where candidates still got to run for public office despite submitting false information on their CoCs.

A glaring example, he said, is that of Alice Guo, whom the Comelec subpoenaed because of alleged material misrepresentation in her CoC in the 2022 elections. This came about follow the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)’s confirmation that the fingerprints of the former mayor in Comelec’s voting records and the fingerprints of a Chinese woman named Guo Hua Ping at the NBI came from a single person.

Garcia clarified that it was not their fault that Guo assumed public office despite questions on her citizenship because their only role was to accept her CoC and that no one filed a petition to cancel her candidacy.

“There should be a petition filed. If there was a petition, we would have acted on it. That’s why when the issue was getting big, what we said was when she was proclaimed, the Comelec no longer had any power,” he explained.

“Once a candidate is proclaimed [a winner], the power of the Comelec will vanish and therefore, if they are proclaimed and someone questions it, another government agency should handle it,” he further stated.

The Comelec chair likewise announced that the public can help prevent misrepresentation cases by filing a petition to cancel an aspirant’s CoC.

“Under Rule 23 of Resolution No. 9523, a registered voter or a duly registered political party can file a petition to deny or cancel a CoC on the exclusive ground that any material representation contained therein as required by law is false,” he stressed even as he reminded that the petition must be filed no later than 25 days after the aspirant filed their CoC, otherwise, the case will be filed for ‘lack of jurisdiction’.