COMELEC TOLD TO STOP CHARADE BEHIND BEDOLS ARREST ORDER

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today called on the Commission on Elections to stop hoodwinking the people and pretending that it is running after Maguindanao provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol in the face of its blatant efforts to cover up his role in the wholesale falsification of the senatorial results in the province.

Pimentel said Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos is making it appear that it is sanctioning Bedol by supposedly ordering his arrest when the truth is the poll body is treating him with a kids gloves, while doing nothing about the election mess in Maguindanao of which he is the principal culprit.

He said the much-ballyhooed arrest order was nothing but a ploy to divert public attention away from the massive electoral fraud in Maguindanao.

It took the Comelec several days before issuing the arrest order which was recommended by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, head of the Task Force Maguindanao, after Bedol repeatedly ignored the summons to explain the mysterious loss of certificates of canvass and other election documents from the 22 municipalities in Maguindanao.

Pimentel said Chief Superintendent Jose Goltiao, Regional Commander of the Philippine National Police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, could not arrest Bedol although the Police knew his whereabouts of the election official in the absence of arrest warrant.

But now that the arrest warrant is out, Bedol could not be located anymore, as he has apparently gone into hiding.

Pimentel said there could be repetition of the failure to enforce a Senates order to arrest Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in 2004 in connection with the probe of the Hello Garci controversy because he went into hiding with the help of Malacañang.

He expressed dismay that the Comelec, acting as national board of canvassers, railroaded the tabulation of the disputed senatorial votes from Maguindanao without waiting for Bedol to be apprehended by the police and to testify on the disappearance of the municipal COCs and other election documents which were believed to have been fabricated by fraud operators in cahoots with Bedol.

Whatever actions that the Comelec is doing now is just a moro moro, a charade because of what use is Bedols testimony when the tainted Maguindanao COCs have already been tallied by Comelec? Chairman Benjamin Abalos had simply ignored the repeated motion of the Genuine Opposition to have he questioned election documents examined to verify allegations of fraud, Pimentel said.

What should not be overlooked, Pimentel said, is that the biggest offense committed by Bedol is not his refusal to obey the summons of Commissioner Ferrer but how he manipulated the Maguindanao municipal COCs to give way to the proclamation of a candidate not really elected by the people.

Pimentel said the tampering of election documents involving more than 5,000 votes is tantamount to electoral sabotage under Republic Act 9369 which is punishable by life imprisonment.

He also demanded an explanation from Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos why Bedol has not been relieved as Maguindanao provincial election supervisor as recommended by Commissioner Ferrer.