[] Prosecutors may still decide on complaint though it was filed with the Provincial Prosecutor's Office as an "administrative" case.
'AI DID IT'. Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro's striking, if not principal, defense to the complaint that she unlawfully wore a SWAT uniform is this: Artificial Intelligence (AI) did it.
The image of a woman looking very much like Pamela Baricuatro -- wearing a SWAT uniform, with patches and insignias of the elite force in the Philippine National Police, and holding a rifle, with men in same attire and weapon behind her -- was not actually her. She didn't pose for the photograph.
Not me, her publicized denial in effect said: AI generated it. Looks like her, but it's not actually her.
Related: Seares: Did Guv Pam 'publicly, improperly make use of' a SWAT police uniform'? News+One, Nov. 23, 2025
STILL HARMFUL? All right, Junino Padilla, who also writes an opinion column in SunStar, said, AI did it. But the law, Republic Act #179 of the Revised Penal Code, "is not about fabric alone." He said it is "about representation, appearance, and the potential to mislead the public."
The misuse, Padilla says in a November 24, 2025 post titled "When Pixels Pretend to be Power," is not harmless. "If anything it makes it easier to mislead and more capable of influencing public perception."
Baricuatro -- who's not and isn't likely in this life to join SWAT or even work as a street cop -- didn't actually wear a SWAT uniform for that image. AI produced it and the result, as circulated in the internet, made the governor look like she is displaying herself as a SWAT member or leader (she's up front, heading the "squad").
The governor's act, Padilla says, satisfies the first element of the crime under Art. 179: namely, "the offender publicly and improperly makes use of uniform, insignia or dress."
IT'S THE POSTING. Padilla presents a highly interesting theory, as the legislators who passed the Penal Code, which took effect January 1, 1932, must not have thought of it (never crossed our minds, they could've said).
Though amended multiple times since it was enacted more than 93 years ago, the law must still not cover a situation where an accused offender "makes use" of a uniform "improperly" by digital device and creation.
Even if the creation was innocent -- as the image was reportedly a gift from the Cebu Provincial Police Office -- Guv Pam's posting in the internet constituted, Padilla contends, a "display that could mislead viewers into thinking" she is a SWAT member.
The internet posting, under Padilla-positioned theory, meets the law's requirement of "publicly and improperly making use of" the SWAT uniform.
INTENT TO GAIN. Baricuatro didn't actually wear the uniform. She didn't make the image of herself being garbed as a SWAT member. A PNP unit did, or, more accurately directed its making. Notice the irony of ironies, as the police organization has long waged a continuing campaign against unlawful use of police uniforms by non-police individuals.
What did she do? So far, this is what probably happened: She posted it under her account in Facebook as acknowledgment of the police office's birthday gift.
That must be where the core issue sits. Does the term in the law -- "make use of" -- include the posting or publication of the supposed wearing of the uniform?
Complainant Byron Garcia, brother of former governor Gwen Garcia, may have to prove unlawful intent by Pam Baricuatro in publicizing she could be a SWAT member. Part of the defense would be that she had no intent of deception and gain: as governor, could role-playing or pretending as a SWAT member/officer provide more opportunities than being the chief executive of the richest province in the country?
Would intent to gain matter? That may be considered by the prosecutors in determining probable cause and, a new thing in the job of prosecutors, its chance of being upheld by the trial court.
'PROBABLE CAUSE'; 'REASONABLE CERTAINTY OF CONVICTION'. Chances of Governor Baricuatro to dodge the complaint may be boosted by the basic precepts in criminal law, namely: (a) The law shall be strictly interpreted in favor of the accused. (b) "In doubt, for the accused," or, as lawyers like Atty. John Rey Saavedra love to say in Latin, "in dubio pro rio."
But didn't Byron Garcia, in his letter-complaint to the provincial prosecutor, say he was filing "an administrative complaint"? He said that in the first sentence of the document.
Yet the substance of his complaint cited the Revised Penal Code provision on unlawful "making use" of the uniform, as well as the act allegedly constituting the criminal offense. That might prompt prosecutors to treat it as a criminal complaint.
Otherwise, the prosecutor may dismiss it and advise the complainant to go instead to the Ombudsman, the office of the President through DILG, or the Civil Service Commission.
And there are also ground rules on filing that may work in the governor's favor: Aside from the requirement on finding "probable cause," prosecutors are advised in a department policy to look at the evidence for a "reasonable certainty of conviction."