Filtered By: Topstories
News

Ombudsman orders Bedol charged over '07 poll fraud


The Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday ordered the filing of graft charges against former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol for his alleged involvement in widespread cheating in Maguindanao in the May 2007 mid-term elections. A statement from the Office of the Ombudsman said it was Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Humphrey Monteroso who ordered the filing of charges, acting on the complaint filed by Commission on Elections (Comelec) Law Department head Ferdinand Rafanan. The Office of the Ombudsman will file the graft case before the Cotabato City Regional Trial Court. The Ombdusman has recommended a bail of P30,000 against Bedol.
Bedol supposedly directed local election officials to submit to him copies of the Municipal Certificate of Canvass (MCOC), Election Returns (ER), Statement of Votes (SOV) and Summary Statement of Votes (SSOV) generated by all precincts in the municipality of Maguindanao. The said documents contained results for local and national positions in the May 2007 mid-term elections. "Thereafter however, the said documents could no longer be located by Comelec officials despite stringent measures adopted for its safekeeping. "As a result, the votes for the province of Maguindanao were not transmitted to the Comelec, thereby causing undue injury to the government as the canvassing of votes for Senatorial and party-list were unnecessarily delayed and the loss of these documents tainted the image and credibility of the Comelec as a constitutional and independent body," said the Ombusdman's statement. Bedol tags Arroyo Bedol, who was turned over to the Comelec last Tuesday, is detained at the Philippine National Police's Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City. The Comelec has found Bedol guilty of contempt in 2007 and had ordered his arrest. The former poll supervisor, however, went into hiding and evaded arrest for four years. Bedol has claimed that former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the rigging of election returns in Maguindanao in 2007 to pad votes for the Arroyo administration's senatorial bets. The camp of Mrs. Arroyo has since denied the allegation. "Normal lamang siguro na reaction ‘yan ng mga [nag-aakalang] sila ay na-agrabyado ng nakaraang labanan sa pulitika… We’ll just leave it at that," lawyer Raul Lambino, Mrs. Arroyo’s legal counsel, said on Tuesday. The former Philippine leader's camp also alleged that Bedol’s surrender is a ploy by the current administration and that Bedol forged an agreement with the current administration to reduce his prison time. — RSJ, GMA News

LOADING CONTENT