MANILA – Dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo on Tuesday asked prosecutors to dismiss the perjury and falsification charges filed against her in connection with a notarized document she allegedly signed while she was already out of the country.
Defense counsel Stephen David maintained that Guo—who was transferred in an ambulance from the Pasig City Jail to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the hearing before a panel of government prosecutors—should not be charged with perjury or falsification because she was the one who signed the counter-affidavit filed in a separate charge for qualified trafficking against her and others.
“Siya naman pumirma doon. Pre-signed kasi ‘yan. Wala akong nakikitang falsification doon kasi siya naman ang pumirma. Ngayon kung sino ang nagnotaryo, ‘yun dapat ang tanungin natin,” he said. (She was the one who signed it. That was pre-signed. I don’t see any falsification there because she was the one who signed. Now, as to the one who notarized it, we should ask him.)
Lawyer Elmer Galicia notarized the questioned counter-affidavit on Aug. 14, while Guo reportedly left the Philippines on July 18.
The dismissed mayor was eventually apprehended by Indonesian authorities in early September.
Authorities insist that Guo could not have personally appeared before the notary public, as she had already fled the country a month earlier.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had filed several complaints against Guo, Galicia, and four others before the Department of Justice regarding the allegedly fraudulent counter-affidavit. (PNA)