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Lintang Bedol may be in US, says Comelec commissioner
(Updated) MANILA, Philippines - More than a year after he was ordered arrested, controversial former Maguindanao elections supervisor Lintang Bedol remains at large and may be in the United States. Commission on Elections Commissioner Lucenito Tagle said this was the latest information they got on Bedol's whereabouts since the poll body ordered him arrested in late 2007. "We heard he is in the States, that's why we communicated with people there. [But] up to now we cannot locate him, sad to say," Tagle told a Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing for his confirmation. He admitted they had been having a "hard time locating Mr. Bedol" even after charges have been filed in court against him. "We will try to communicate with consular offices abroad. We will seek help from our people abroad," he said. But the CA Committee on Constitutional Commissions and Offices member Francis Pangilinan said all that information would be useless until Bedol had been arrested. Pangilinan, who questioned Tagle about Bedol's whereabouts, noted the failure to get Bedol might put the credibility of the 2010 elections in doubt. "My fear is that come 2010 the trust and confidence of the people will not be fully restored with respect to Comelec. We may have a very difficult time ensuring credible elections. People will continue to doubt the capacity of the Comelec to do its job," he said. In 2008, Bedol petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify a Comelec ruling that found him guilty of indirect contempt. The court also gave the Comelec 30 days to submit its own memorandum so that it could finally rule on Bedol's petition. The Comelec found Bedol guilty of indirect contempt after he defied summonses to appear in investigations on his province's voting in the May 2007 midterm elections. It sentenced him to six months imprisonment and fined him P1,000, but authorities failed to locate him. In 2007 the Genuine Opposition accused Bedol of manipulating the provincial poll results in favor of Team Unity bets. In particular, the GO accused him of shaving the votes for senatorial candidate Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III in favor of administration candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri. More charges Also in the CA hearing, Tagle said Bedol faced additional charges, amid the poll body's efforts in trying to shore up its image in time for the 2010 polls. "We filed a case against Bedol, it's now with the Ombudsman. Our law department filed the case against Bedol on Jan. 16, 2009, before Ombudsman in Davao City," he said. Tagle also informed the CA that Rey Sumalipao, who had been linked to alleged cheating in the 2004 elections, was still with the Comelec but had been placed "in the freezer." He neither elaborated on Sumalipao nor explained the "delay" in filing the case against Bedol – more than a year after Bedol was accused of poll fraud. "We are reinventing the Comelec. We have to change our image this time under the [Chairman Jose Melo] leadership," he said. Pangilinan advised Tagle to prioritize the arrest of Bedol, saying the move would make Comelec's work "10 times easier" in 2010. "You put Bedol behind bars, you send a signal anyone in wrongdoing will suffer the same fate ... Your work in 2010 will be 10 times easier if you show your rank and file you are serious against election fraud. That will send a signal you will not condone wrongdoing," Pangilinan said. - GMANews.TV
2007 ELECTION IN MAGUINDANAO CONTROVERSY TIMELINE
Source: GMA News Research
May 16, 2007
The administration's senatorial ticket lorded it over the Genuine Opposition with a 12-0 sweep in initial tallies from Maguindanao towns. With more than 70 percent of the votes in the province already counted, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson emerged as the topnotcher. The outcome raised some eyebrows since it defied voting patterns nationwide, where Genuine Opposition senatorial candidates took the lead. The GMA News team was barred from entering the provincial capitol purportedly upon the orders of Atty. Lintang Bedol, the provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao. Other media members were allowed to get inside to cover the canvassing of votes. (In a follow up report, COMELEC Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said Bedol denied barring the GMA News team from witnessing the canvassing.)
In the days that followed, election watchdogs such as NAMFREL and Lente presented accounts of witnesses who claimed there were poll irregularities in some areas in Maguindanao. NAMFREL, for one, accused COMELEC officers in the province of withholding copies of election returns from the group's volunteers. The volunteers were also not allowed to enter canvassing areas. A witness who sought Lente's help claimed public school teachers were forced to fill out ballots with the names of Team Unity candidates, the night before elections were held. COMELEC and the Department of Justice subsequently formed Task Force Maguindanao to investigate the allegations.
May 22, 2007
The National Board of Canvassers (NBC) deferred the tallying of the certificate of canvass from Maguindanao because Bedol was not around. He was supposed to authenticate election documents from the province and answer questions regarding it, but he failed to show up at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
May 25, 2007
Bedol attended the canvassing procedure at the PICC. Grilled by opposition lawyers, he admitted that opposition representatives and election watchdog volunteers were not present during the provincial tally.
The NBC began canvassing the votes from Maguindanao, but COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos halted it after noting that many candidates received zero vote.
May 28, 2007
Citing health reasons, COMELEC Commissioner Rene Sarmiento resigned as head of Task Force Maguindanao (resignation letter was submitted the following day). Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer replaced him.
According to Newsbreak, it was on this date when Bedol collected election documents from provincial election officers "for safekeeping".
May 29, 2007
According to Bedol, it was on this date when the municipal COCs in Maguindanao disappeared from his office.
May 30, 2007
Election officers failed to show up at the canvassing procedure at the PICC despite having been directed by the NBC to bring the election documents from Maguindanao. Bedol likewise was a no-show. COMELEC ordered the recanvassing of votes from Maguindanao and formed a new board of canvassers. The ruling came out after COMELEC found it statistically improbable for 19 candidates to get zero votes in the province's towns. The retabulation would be based on municipal COCs and statements of votes (SOVs) and would be held at the PICC.
May 31, 2007
COMELEC had Bedol and two other provincial election supervisors (Lilian Radam and Yogie Martirizar, election supervisors of North and South Cotabato, respectively) placed on the immigration watchlist, assuming that they may have already gone into hiding.
COMELEC also threatened to cite Bedol in contempt if he fails to explain his consecutive absences at the canvassing procedure.
June 1, 2007
Bedol turned up at the COMELEC head office in Intramuros, apparently to show that he is not in hiding. However, he skipped the canvassing procedure at the PICC.
June 4, 2007
The Comelec’s special board of canvassers (SBOC) for Maguindanao failed to proceed with the retabulation of votes because it had yet to receive the municipal COCs to back the provincial COC submitted by Bedol.
June 6, 2007
COMELEC came out with an order requiring all proclaimed officials in Maguindanao to prove that elections were indeed held in the province last May, and that they were duly elected and proclaimed; should the proclaimed officials fail to do so, COMELEC would declare a failure of elections in Maguindanao.Â
The poll body also issued a show cause order to Bedol; he faces arrest if he fails to show up in five days' time.
June 9, 2007
Musa Dimasidsing, Maguindanao schools district supervisor and designated election supervisor in Maguindanao, was gunned down by unidentified men in Pikit, North Cotabato.
Dimasidsing exposed alleged electoral fraud in the Pagalungan, Maguindanao. He reported to authorities incidents of ballot snatching, and filed a complaint against members of the board of election inspectors who allegedly committed irregularities during the canvassing of votes.
June 11, 2007
Bedol showed up at the COMELEC's en banc hearing, reporting that the municipal level COCs and SOVs used as basis for the Maguindanao COC are missing. He claimed the documents were stolen from the COMELEC office at the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak on May 29.
June 12, 2007
COMELEC Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer subpoenaed all Maguindanao election officers since none of them were able to attend in the hearing the previous day. A special courier was sent to personally deliver the subpoenas.
June 15, 2007
Based on documents submitted by Governor-elect Datu Andal Ampatuan, COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos declared that there was no failure of elections in Maguindanao. The documents, signed by Bedol, contained the proceedings of the Maguindanao board of canvassers, which completed tabulating all the municipal COCs and ordered the proclamation of winning candidates.
COMELEC denied senatorial candidate Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III's motion for the poll body to convert itself into the NBC and for it to proclaim him senator-elect based on the national canvass excluding Maguindanao.
Task Force Maguindanao's hearing was cancelled because the subpoenaed election officers failed to attend.
COMELEC decided that instead of having the election officers travel to Manila, the commissioners themselves would be the ones to fly to Mindanao to pursue the investigation into the alleged poll irregularities in Maguindanao.
June 20, 2007
COMELEC Chairman Abalos and Commissioners Ferrer and Rene Sarmiento met with 21 Maguindanao election officers in General Santos City and inspected the copies of the municipal COCs which the election officers brought with them.
June 21, 2007
Pimentel asked the Supreme Court to stop Abalos, Ferrer and Sarmiento from examining the municipal COCs in Maguindanao, claiming that the authenticity of the election documents was questionable. Pimentel wanted to be proclaimed as the 12th senator based on the national canvass sans the Maguindanao votes.
However, Task Force Maguindanao had already found the municipal COCs presented by the election officers as authentic, proving that elections were indeed held in the province.
June 22, 2007
COMELEC issues a resolution (Resolution 8195) ordering the Maguindanao special provincial board of canvassers to reconvene and to conduct the recanvassing of the province's votes in Shariff Aguak.
June 25, 2007
Task Force Maguindanao recommended the relief of Bedol from his duties as provincial election supervisor.
The task force also recommended that Bedol should be charged with indirect contempt for snubbing COMELEC hearings, and infidelity in the custody of public documents for the missing COCs.
June 25-26, 2007 (air dates)
In a two-part interview with GMA News somewhere in North Cotabato, Bedol said he was not hiding from COMELEC. He also claimed that aside from a .45-caliber pistol tucked into his waist, he had three other pistols and about 20 Armalite rifles readied for any eventuality.
June 26, 2007
COMELEC said it will have Bedol arrested for failing to surface and explain his side on Maguindanao poll fraud allegations despite the summons issued to him.
June 27, 2007
The provincial board of canvassers finished re-canvassing the municipal COCs from Maguindanao. Miguel Zubiri topped the senatorial race in the province with 195,823 votes, while Pimentel garnered only 67,111 votes.
COMELEC's Law Department failed to issue a warrant of arrest against Bedol; they were busy preparing for the oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Pimentel's petition to stop the canvassing of Maguindanao votes.
June 28, 2007
The Supreme Court rejected Pimentel's plea to stop the canvassing of votes from Maguindanao.
June 29, 2007
The National Board of Canvassers canvassed the Maguindanao votes. When added to the nationwide tally, Pimentel is still ahead of Zubiri, but only by a little over 4,000 votes.
between July 1 and 2, 2007 (July 1 nighttime to midnight)
Police arrested Bedol in a hospital in Davao City. He had just come from a laser treatment on his right eye.
Source: GMA News Research
May 16, 2007
The administration's senatorial ticket lorded it over the Genuine Opposition with a 12-0 sweep in initial tallies from Maguindanao towns. With more than 70 percent of the votes in the province already counted, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson emerged as the topnotcher. The outcome raised some eyebrows since it defied voting patterns nationwide, where Genuine Opposition senatorial candidates took the lead. The GMA News team was barred from entering the provincial capitol purportedly upon the orders of Atty. Lintang Bedol, the provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao. Other media members were allowed to get inside to cover the canvassing of votes. (In a follow up report, COMELEC Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said Bedol denied barring the GMA News team from witnessing the canvassing.)
In the days that followed, election watchdogs such as NAMFREL and Lente presented accounts of witnesses who claimed there were poll irregularities in some areas in Maguindanao. NAMFREL, for one, accused COMELEC officers in the province of withholding copies of election returns from the group's volunteers. The volunteers were also not allowed to enter canvassing areas. A witness who sought Lente's help claimed public school teachers were forced to fill out ballots with the names of Team Unity candidates, the night before elections were held. COMELEC and the Department of Justice subsequently formed Task Force Maguindanao to investigate the allegations.
May 22, 2007
The National Board of Canvassers (NBC) deferred the tallying of the certificate of canvass from Maguindanao because Bedol was not around. He was supposed to authenticate election documents from the province and answer questions regarding it, but he failed to show up at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
May 25, 2007
Bedol attended the canvassing procedure at the PICC. Grilled by opposition lawyers, he admitted that opposition representatives and election watchdog volunteers were not present during the provincial tally.
The NBC began canvassing the votes from Maguindanao, but COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos halted it after noting that many candidates received zero vote.
May 28, 2007
Citing health reasons, COMELEC Commissioner Rene Sarmiento resigned as head of Task Force Maguindanao (resignation letter was submitted the following day). Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer replaced him.
According to Newsbreak, it was on this date when Bedol collected election documents from provincial election officers "for safekeeping".
May 29, 2007
According to Bedol, it was on this date when the municipal COCs in Maguindanao disappeared from his office.
May 30, 2007
Election officers failed to show up at the canvassing procedure at the PICC despite having been directed by the NBC to bring the election documents from Maguindanao. Bedol likewise was a no-show. COMELEC ordered the recanvassing of votes from Maguindanao and formed a new board of canvassers. The ruling came out after COMELEC found it statistically improbable for 19 candidates to get zero votes in the province's towns. The retabulation would be based on municipal COCs and statements of votes (SOVs) and would be held at the PICC.
May 31, 2007
COMELEC had Bedol and two other provincial election supervisors (Lilian Radam and Yogie Martirizar, election supervisors of North and South Cotabato, respectively) placed on the immigration watchlist, assuming that they may have already gone into hiding.
COMELEC also threatened to cite Bedol in contempt if he fails to explain his consecutive absences at the canvassing procedure.
June 1, 2007
Bedol turned up at the COMELEC head office in Intramuros, apparently to show that he is not in hiding. However, he skipped the canvassing procedure at the PICC.
June 4, 2007
The Comelec’s special board of canvassers (SBOC) for Maguindanao failed to proceed with the retabulation of votes because it had yet to receive the municipal COCs to back the provincial COC submitted by Bedol.
June 6, 2007
COMELEC came out with an order requiring all proclaimed officials in Maguindanao to prove that elections were indeed held in the province last May, and that they were duly elected and proclaimed; should the proclaimed officials fail to do so, COMELEC would declare a failure of elections in Maguindanao.Â
The poll body also issued a show cause order to Bedol; he faces arrest if he fails to show up in five days' time.
June 9, 2007
Musa Dimasidsing, Maguindanao schools district supervisor and designated election supervisor in Maguindanao, was gunned down by unidentified men in Pikit, North Cotabato.
Dimasidsing exposed alleged electoral fraud in the Pagalungan, Maguindanao. He reported to authorities incidents of ballot snatching, and filed a complaint against members of the board of election inspectors who allegedly committed irregularities during the canvassing of votes.
June 11, 2007
Bedol showed up at the COMELEC's en banc hearing, reporting that the municipal level COCs and SOVs used as basis for the Maguindanao COC are missing. He claimed the documents were stolen from the COMELEC office at the provincial capitol in Shariff Aguak on May 29.
June 12, 2007
COMELEC Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer subpoenaed all Maguindanao election officers since none of them were able to attend in the hearing the previous day. A special courier was sent to personally deliver the subpoenas.
June 15, 2007
Based on documents submitted by Governor-elect Datu Andal Ampatuan, COMELEC Chairman Benjamin Abalos declared that there was no failure of elections in Maguindanao. The documents, signed by Bedol, contained the proceedings of the Maguindanao board of canvassers, which completed tabulating all the municipal COCs and ordered the proclamation of winning candidates.
COMELEC denied senatorial candidate Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III's motion for the poll body to convert itself into the NBC and for it to proclaim him senator-elect based on the national canvass excluding Maguindanao.
Task Force Maguindanao's hearing was cancelled because the subpoenaed election officers failed to attend.
COMELEC decided that instead of having the election officers travel to Manila, the commissioners themselves would be the ones to fly to Mindanao to pursue the investigation into the alleged poll irregularities in Maguindanao.
June 20, 2007
COMELEC Chairman Abalos and Commissioners Ferrer and Rene Sarmiento met with 21 Maguindanao election officers in General Santos City and inspected the copies of the municipal COCs which the election officers brought with them.
June 21, 2007
Pimentel asked the Supreme Court to stop Abalos, Ferrer and Sarmiento from examining the municipal COCs in Maguindanao, claiming that the authenticity of the election documents was questionable. Pimentel wanted to be proclaimed as the 12th senator based on the national canvass sans the Maguindanao votes.
However, Task Force Maguindanao had already found the municipal COCs presented by the election officers as authentic, proving that elections were indeed held in the province.
June 22, 2007
COMELEC issues a resolution (Resolution 8195) ordering the Maguindanao special provincial board of canvassers to reconvene and to conduct the recanvassing of the province's votes in Shariff Aguak.
June 25, 2007
Task Force Maguindanao recommended the relief of Bedol from his duties as provincial election supervisor.
The task force also recommended that Bedol should be charged with indirect contempt for snubbing COMELEC hearings, and infidelity in the custody of public documents for the missing COCs.
June 25-26, 2007 (air dates)
In a two-part interview with GMA News somewhere in North Cotabato, Bedol said he was not hiding from COMELEC. He also claimed that aside from a .45-caliber pistol tucked into his waist, he had three other pistols and about 20 Armalite rifles readied for any eventuality.
June 26, 2007
COMELEC said it will have Bedol arrested for failing to surface and explain his side on Maguindanao poll fraud allegations despite the summons issued to him.
June 27, 2007
The provincial board of canvassers finished re-canvassing the municipal COCs from Maguindanao. Miguel Zubiri topped the senatorial race in the province with 195,823 votes, while Pimentel garnered only 67,111 votes.
COMELEC's Law Department failed to issue a warrant of arrest against Bedol; they were busy preparing for the oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Pimentel's petition to stop the canvassing of Maguindanao votes.
June 28, 2007
The Supreme Court rejected Pimentel's plea to stop the canvassing of votes from Maguindanao.
June 29, 2007
The National Board of Canvassers canvassed the Maguindanao votes. When added to the nationwide tally, Pimentel is still ahead of Zubiri, but only by a little over 4,000 votes.
between July 1 and 2, 2007 (July 1 nighttime to midnight)
Police arrested Bedol in a hospital in Davao City. He had just come from a laser treatment on his right eye.
Tags: lintangbedol, lucenitotagle
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