Dismissed mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac, has floated the idea, through her lawyers, of seeking reelection despite the fact that she faces a pile of complaints and cases due to her alleged ties to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators.
This sowed confusion as Guo is already detained at Pasig City Jail for charges that include graft and human trafficking, on top of other complaints such as money laundering.
But what’s the rule on detained people running in elections? Can persons deprived of liberty (PDL) like Guo run or not? Or is Guo’s case sui generis?
Who can run and who can’t
Election rules allow PDLs who are not yet convicted of crimes to run and even win in polls.
The best example is former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who won as a Senator in 2007, even though he was detained for rebellion charges. During the 2023 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, some PDLs also scored election victories.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, a person can only be disqualified from being a candidate or holding any public office if he or she has been declared by competent authority as “insane or incompetent, or has been sentenced by final judgment for subversion, insurrection, rebellion or for any offense for which he has been sentenced to a penalty of more than eighteen months or for a crime involving moral turpitude.”
Meanwhile, to run for mayor, here are the requirements, according to rules:
- Citizen of the Philippines
- Registered voter in the city where he/she intends to be elected
- Resident of the city where he/she intends to be elected for at least 1 year before the day of election
- Able to write in Filipino or any other local language or dialect
- At least 21 years old on election day
Guo is still under investigation and under trial for her cases, which means these cases have yet to attain finality.
However, the Office of the Solicitor General has a pending petition with the court that seeks to cancel her birth certificate. If the OSG succeeds, the petition would strip Guo of her Filipino citizenship, which is among the basic requirements to run in the polls.
The basis of the cancellation Guo’s birth certificate was the allegedly illegal procedures to which she resorted to obtain late registration. In another petition — quo warranto — the OSG also argued that Guo “is not a Filipino citizen by birth or by naturalization.”
What can Comelec do?
Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, whose office serves as the government’s primary legal counsel, said Guo may still file her COC for any elective position since her pending cases have yet to attain finality.
However, registering a candidacy is different from actually running in an election. Filing a COC formalizes a persons’ intent to run for office, while running officially in the elections meant a person has been included in the official ballot by the Comelec.
As in past elections, not everyone who files their COCs end up with their names on the official ballot. The Comelec will screen the aspirants to ensure that those who will run have met the necessary qualifications.
The reason: the Comelec performs but a ministerial duty to receive COCs that are complete in form.
Guevarra, meanwhile, seconded this point and said that the Comelec is “duty-bound” to accept the Guo’s COC, “unless it later disqualifies Guo for some valid reason.”
“The Comelec is in the best [but not exclusive] position to determine what further action to take after acceptance of Guo’s certificate of candidacy, if ever she files one and other parties object,” the Solicitor General told Rappler.
Rappler has already reached to Guo’s camp. We will update this story once they respond.
Possible grounds
According to Garcia, there are a number of possible grounds that can be cited to cancel an aspirant’s candidacy. Among the most common ground is the declaration of an aspirant as a nuisance candidate, which, according to Section 69 of the Omnibus Election Code, means a person who seeks to “put the election process in mockery or disrepute or to cause confusion among the voters.”
Another ground could be through the cancellation of a person’s COC due to age, citizenship, or electoral registration.
Any person may file a petition with the Comelec to seek the cancellation of Guo’s COC. This is what happened when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ran in 2022, and several individuals and groups filed petitions to block his candidacy. All the bids were obviously unsuccessful as Marcos was declared an official candidate and later won in the presidential race.
The Comelec may also disqualify Guo based on the Office of the Ombudsman’s resolution that dismissed Guo from public office. The said decision did not only punish Guo for grave misconduct, but also meted her with forfeiture of all her retirement benefits and perpetual disqualification from reentering government service.
“The Comelec will always implement and execute the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman that is an act of respect to the office, and that is what is provided for under Republic Act 6770,” Garcia said.
In 2022, the Comelec ruled that former lawmaker Prospero Pichay’s candidacy was invalid in the first place because of a previous conviction that carried with it the penalty of disqualification from public office, similar to Guo’s case.
In its Pichay ruling, the Comelec en banc also said that the Ombudsman’s decision against Pichay was effective immediately, regardless of appeals, based on the amended Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman.
In the end, in the event that Guo decides to file her certificate of candidacy, her political fate will be the hands of the country’s poll body. – Rappler.com