“Things are not what they seem.” Before a broad state-sponsored persecution takes its toll on controversial Mayor Alice Guo to the extent that the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) itself is contemplating her perpetual disqualification from public office, the issue should be viewed from a child’s viewpoint.

The absence of the accused ought to be consequential because the wheels of justice cannot gain traction unless and until the beleaguered local chief executive is afforded the proverbial due process. Such a right granted to any citizen – true Filipino or true Chinese — must be bestowed.

Based on fingerprints on two separate specimens from existing records, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) validated that one Alice Guo and one Guo Hua Ping were actually one and the same. Henceforth, so goes its conclusion, the parties referred therein are one and the same individual.

Be she Alice or Hua, at bottom, Guo is her family name, isn’t it? The most fundamental question is what crimes, if any, had she committed as Alice, on one hand, and as Hua, on the other? How strange that an NBI clearance could be issued to Hua whose fingerprints and other details match exactly that of Alice, and vice versa.

Charges of material misrepresentation, as well as perjury, are about to be initiated by the Comelec against her, not to mention a trafficking case by the Department of Justice. On the sole basis of fingerprints, any and all forms of possible charges are being strung together with indicatively extreme prejudice — graft charges, suspension, links to POGOs.

The justice system thus appears to be like a horse running with blinders on — and it’s certainly against the notion of justice for its field of vision to be limited, free of distractions, and forced to look only in the forward direction.

Prejudicially, the State has given no premium to the fact that an Alice Guo commendably performed her job as a worthy municipal mayor of Bamban, with nothing bordering on a crime ever imputed to her. Rare interviews reveal that she is well-liked and well-loved that no one would ever think that she is not a Filipino born elsewhere.

Guo’s disclosed “double identity” notwithstanding, it must be pretty complicated how the State would exact any prohibition, penalty, or even conviction against her solely and exclusively without any other government office being held to account. Heads must roll in all agencies that officially issued Alice or Hua legal documents.

A stream of other questions could be asked, and the answers will not be easy-peasy to comprehend. How will the law apply to someone born in the Philippines with at least one parent being a Filipino citizen, more so in residence for 35 years?

How come Comelec earlier found nothing wrong with her Certificate of Candidacy as a mayoralty candidate nor was there any challenge to it? Can Comelec embargo what it had granted to one whom it proclaimed the winner in that local election, without culpability, one way or the other?

How about bona fide memberships, certificates, clearances, licenses, and IDs like a valid Philippine passport or other legal documents officially issued by the government (voter’s or postal ID, gun or driver’s license)? Doesn’t it have the same “ripple effect” on all responsible offices?

Don’t the constituents of Bamban feel violated with their mayor being suspended, declared a non-Filipino, effectively severed from her duties, or whatever remained of her term of office? How come there was neither a loud nor mute protest against her if Guo would likely be convicted for “catch-all” crimes the government had, in effect, orchestrated?

Whatever happened to the revered “Vox populi, vox Dei” on the sanctity of the ballot in the case of Bamban? Could not the State invent constructive and remedial actions that would allow her to finish her term for the sake of the constituents she serves, in lieu of disenfranchisement? Let the bubble burst on its own rather than on this unfolding tableau of crime and misfortune.