Alice Guo’s among 1 million duplicate fingerprints found by Comelec
COTABATO CITY, BARMM, Philippines — Dismissed Bamban mayor Alice Guo’s finger print is among the one million duplicate dactylograms found by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in its system.
Comelec chairman George Erwin Garcia, in a press conference here at Bangsamoro Government Center on Monday, said such double and multiple fingerprints were discovered through the poll body’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System from February to September this year.
“We filed a case [against Alice Guo] in Bamban, Tarlac for having six duplicate fingerprints…“One [of the fingerprints] is Chinese while the other five is from her,” Garcia said in a press conference during the certificate of candidacy filing for Bangsamoro parliamentary elections here.
READ: COC filing begins for BARMM elections despite postponement calls
It can be recalled that the Comelec filed charges against Guo over alleged material misrepresentation as the poll body learned that her fingerprints in their voting records and the National Bureau of Investigation’s fingerprint record of a Chinese woman named Guo Hua Ping matched. Only Filipino citizens are allowed to run for public office.
READ: Alice Guo faces misrepresentation raps filed by Comelec
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“It’s up to her to defend herself, and it’s up to her to destroy the credibility and integrity of the findings when it comes to her fingerprints,” Garcia said.
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Guo has been detained in Pasay City Jail after her arrest in Indonesia in September.
Fingerprint duplication constitutes an election offense that could lead to one to six year imprisonment, according to Garcia.
“The Supreme Court said that this election offense is malum prohibitum—good faith is not a defense,” he pointed out. “The fact that you have registered, whatever your reason as to your registration, is punishable.”
However, Garcia said the Comelec will still have to investigate if the fingerprint duplications warrant a criminal case.
“Maybe the problem could be on our part,” Garcia said, noting that there could be cases where some of the voter records of transferees are not yet reconciled.
The Comelec’s Election Registration Board will soon convene to expurgate the duplicate voters, he said.
The official list of voters should be done by this month, Garcia said. As of Sunday, the Comelec reported that there are 68,618,667 registered voters nationwide for the midterm elections.