DILG chief Robredo: We didn't 'coddle' Bedol

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo on Tuesday clarified that their taking custody of former Maguindanao provincial elections supervisor Lintang Bedol was an act of "coddling." Branding the term coddling as "malicious," Robredo said the Department of Interior and Local Government merely "facilitated" the surrender of Bedol, who recently resurfaced to claim he was ready to spill the beans on supposed poll fraud in the 2007 mid-term elections. "Hindi ko siya kilala so hindi puwedeng sabihing komportable siya sa akin," Robredo said during a press conference in Quezon City. Robredo said Bedol was already in DILG custody as early as Friday last week but clarified the former poll official never stayed at the DILG's main office in Quezon City. Robredo said DILG personnel securing Bedol had to move him from one place to another, from Malabon to Marikina, as a security measure. The DILG chief stressed that despite Bedol's allegations, the government would be taking his statements with a grain of salt. "We are not saying we are believing him now. What we are saying is that we will process the information from him," Robredo said.

Earlier in the day, Bedol was turned over to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) before being ordered detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame. He wore a bulletproof vest from the time he was taken to the Comelec until his transfer to Camp Crame. Bedol is accused of allegedly manipulating the provincial poll results in the 2007 elections to favor candidates allied with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, particularly Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri. Zubiri has since denied involvement in any poll fraud. In 2007, the Comelec found Bedol guilty of indirect contempt after he defied summonses to appear in investigations on his province's voting in the mid-term elections that year. In 2008, however, Bedol petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify a Comelec ruling that found him guilty of indirect contempt. The court gave the Comelec 30 days to submit its own memorandum so that it could finally rule on Bedol's petition. In the end, the court sentenced the poll official to six months imprisonment and fined him P1,000. Authorities, however, failed to locate him. — RSJ, GMA News