EDITORIAL - More Alice Guos?

With the deadline over for the filing of certificates of candidacy, the Commission on Elections has shifted to cleansing the roster of aspirants. Comelec officials have stressed that the role of the poll body is largely ministerial, and it can only disqualify candidates who are deemed to be making a mockery of the electoral process. Such aspirants will be disqualified as nuisance candidates – a classification that is not based on one’s income level or financial capacity, the Comelec has emphasized.

Preventing the emergence of more Alice Guos, however, will require the combined efforts of other government agencies and concerned citizens, Comelec officials have pointed out. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission is investigating reports that other Chinese nationals with fake Philippine citizenship have made successful bids for local elective posts, as a senator disclosed this week.

Comelec officials have said the ministerial duty of the poll body covers merely the acceptance of COCs and verification of the accuracy of certain details in the certificate such as membership in a political party. Determining the authenticity of the citizenship of a candidate, however, is beyond the mandate of the poll body. From the filing of COCs to the formal campaign up to the counting of votes, no one posed objections to the candidacy of Alice Guo for mayor of Bamban, Tarlac in 2022, the Comelec has pointed out.

Guo, who reportedly wanted to seek reelection, has changed her mind amid multiple accusations hurled against her. The latest is that Beijing itself was behind her bid for the mayor’s post in 2022. This allegation was made by a Chinese cellmate of gaming tycoon She Zhijiang who is detained in Thailand and fighting extradition to China. In an interview with news channel Al Jazeera, She had claimed that both he and Guo are Chinese nationals who had been forced to spy for Beijing. Guo allegedly complied because Beijing knew that she had faked her Philippine citizenship.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have conducted several hearings to unearth the truth about Alice Guo, and yet the full picture has not yet been pieced together. If there are more like her out there, occupying local elective posts, it will undoubtedly require a multi-agency effort, with public support, to ferret them out.