Press Release
August 8, 2007

COMELEC PLAYING DEAF AND BLIND
ON BEDOL'S GRAVE ELECTION OFFENSES

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today accused the Commission on Election of playing deaf and blind about the real, grave offenses committed by provincial election supervisor Lintang Bedol in Maguindanao elections by focusing on minor or superficial charges against him for which he was meted out a slap-on-the-wrist punishment.

Pimentel said he was no longer surprised but felt outraged just the same when Comelec penalized Bedol with six months' imprisonment and a fine of P1,000 after being found guilty of indirect contempt for repeatedly snubbing the hearings of Comelec-National Board of Canvassers on the loss of certificates of canvass and other election documents from 22 municipalities of Maguindanao.

He lashed out at the Comelec for conveniently disregarding the real crime of Bedol - the falsification of municipal certificates of canvass and padding of votes for the 12 Team Unity senatorial candidates in Maguindanao - and zeroing in instead on the minor infractions committed by the provincial election supervisor.

"The kid glove's treatment of Bedol reveals Comelec's wrong priorities. Obviously, it's interested only in soundbyte, not in investigating the massive electoral fraud in Maguindanao," the minority leader said.

Pimentel said the Comelec is wrong if thinks that it can placate the people and convince them that it is doing something about poll cheats by handing out a verdict of indirect contempt on Bedol.

"That not what matters to the people. What matters to them is what is being done about the actual subversion of the will of the people in Maguindanao through the action of Bedol. And that would not have been possible without the complicity of Comelec," he said.

Pimentel said the Comelec has refused to examine election documents and open ballot boxes to explain how Team Unity senatorial bet Juan Miguel Zubiri obtained 195,823 votes representing 98.39 percent of the votes cast in Maguindanao while 19 senatorial candidates, many of whom are from the Genuine Opposition, were credited with a uniform zero votes. Even Comelec officials described these figures as statistically improbable.

As a consequence of the faulty handling of the Bedol case, Pimentel said he will file a bill seeking to remove from the jurisdiction of Comelec the authority to investigate and adjudicate complaints against election officials and employees charged with cheating and other poll irregularities.

He said such authority should be placed instead in hands of the Ombudsman, the ordinary prosecutors and the courts of law.

News Latest News Feed