RP Lawmaker Urges Police To Probe Killings Of Poll Officers

MANILA, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 11, 2007) – A Philippine senator on Sunday called for a though investigation into the recent killings of two elections officials.

Alioden Dalaig, the chief of the Commission on Elections’ Legal Department, was shot late Saturday by a lone gunman near his office in downtown Manila, and Joseph del Rosario, also a COMELEC officer in Cavite province, had also been murdered.

Police said the killings were unrelated.

“Though these two incidents may be unrelated to each other and to the victims’ line of work, it still calls for a thorough investigation and for the killers to be identified and locked up behind bars,” Senator Mar Roxas said in a statement sent Sunday to the Mindanao Examiner.

“I feel very sad for them and their families that their lives had to end this way,” he said.

Dalaig, who had been serving for thirty years and was about to retire, handled all legal cases in the COMELEC, including those concerning electoral protests. Dalaig also signed the arrest order against a former COMELEC officer Lintang Bedol, who was linked to alleged poll cheating in May that favored President Gloria Arroyo.

Bedol, who is now in hiding, is facing contempt charges after he failed several times to attend a COMELEC hearing.

The motives in the two killings were unknown, but police said it recovered P300,000 from Dalaig’s pocket. (Mindanao Examiner)

Arrest Of Poll Official Sparks Controversy In South RP

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Jul) – A turf war could spark between two police forces in the southern Philippines after the arrest of a controversial election official in Davao City.

Policemen from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) arrested Lintang Bedol, the provincial elections supervisor of Maguindanao province, in Davao City.

But the arrest was not coordinated with the local police, said Chief Superintendent Jaime Morente, head of the Davao City Police Office.

Morente said they were not informed about the operation of the ARMM police.

“Policemen from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao failed to properly coordinate with us on the arrest,” reporters quoted Morente as saying.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, chief of the ARMM police force, admitted that the poll official was arrested in Davao City by members of the “Task Force Bedol.”

He said Bedol was arrested at a hospital while undergoing cataract operation.

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) ordered Bedol’s arrest after he failed to show up last month at a hearing in Manila to answer investigations on the disappearance of election documents under his custody.

Bedol said the documents were taken from his office in Shariff Aguak town by still unidentified people. The COMELEC said Bedol repeatedly ignored summons to appear before the hearing and since then had not reported for work.

Goltiao earlier told reporters that Bedol was tracked down by policemen to his hideout in Mindanao, but later admitted that the controversial official has been arrested in Davao City.

Goltiao did not say why he did not coordinate with the local police. (Romy Bwaga)

Police Arrest Controversial Poll Official In Mindanao

MAGUINDANAO (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Jul) – Philippine police arrested a controversial election official after he was tracked down at a clinic in the southern port city of Davao.

Police said Lintang Bedol, the provincial elections supervisor in Maguindanao province, did not resist arrest when nabbed late Sunday.

Maguindanao is one of several provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), where cheating and fraud were reported during the May 14 national and local polls.

“He was arrested at a clinic in Davao City,” said Superintendent Joel Goltiao, chief of the regional police force.

The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) ordered Bedol’s arrest after he failed to show up last month at a hearing in Manila to answer investigations on the disappearance of poll documents under his custody.

Bedol said the documents were taken by somebody from his office in Shariff Aguak town. The COMELEC said Bedol repeatedly ignored summons to appear before the hearing and since then had not reported for work.

Goltiao earlier told reporters that Bedol was tracked down by policemen to his hideout, but admitted later in the day that the controversial poll official has been arrested in Davao City.

“He was arrested because we went to his hideout and served him the arrest warrant,” he said Monday morning.

Goltiao said no weapons were found from Bedol, who bragged in a clandestine television interview last week that he has twenty M16 rifles, aside from his .45-caliber and 9mm automatic pistols.

Goltiao said the poll official would be brought to Manila at anytime, but his doctor claimed that Bedol was suffering from hypertension.

Opposition politicians have accused the government of cheating and fraud to ensure victory of its 12 senatorial candidates, especially in the ARMM, which comprises Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces.

Bedol has denied all charges of poll fraud in Maguindanao, where all the government senatorial candidates won by a landslide.

The governor of Maguindanao, Andal Ampatuan and his son, Zaldy Ampatuan, the governor of the ARMM, denied accusations of cheating and election fraud and said the Muslims voted straight for the government candidates.

The Ampatuan clan, one of the most influential in Mindanao, is a staunch ally of President Gloria Arroyo. (With reports from Mark Navales and Juan Magtanggol)