W/ eye patch, ‘bluster gone,’ Bedol takes plane to Manila

(Updated 7:30 p.m.) With a white patch on his right eye, Lintang Bedol arrived at the Davao City airport 6:30 pm Monday, escorted by four uniformed and other civilian police escorts. "The bluster is gone," a witness told GMANews.TV, adding that Bedol did not say a word at all, did not say a word at all, a far cry from his gun-packing motormouth image just days ago. Bedol is scheduled to board the 7:30 pm Philippine Airlines flight to Manila. A police escort said the elusive election supervisor of Maguindanao province was arrested earlier in the day after consulting with a doctor at an unnamed Davao City hospital. Upon arrival at the airport, Bedol was whisked off by his police escorts to the VIP Lounge, with neither handcuffs or handcarried bags. He wore a white collarless shirt, white jacket and denim pants. At the lounge, he sat by himself in silence on a sofa. Bedol, the police said, underwent some procedure for cataract in his right eye. Contrary to a statement by Elections Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, head of police in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, was not among Bedol's escorts. Bedol's flight is expected to arrive in Ma nila before 9:30 pm Monday. Comelec en banc Ferrer had said that Bedol will remain in the custody of Goltiao and will be brought to Commission on Elections main office in Intramuros, Manila, 10 a.m. of Tuesday to attend the Comelec en banc meeting. The Comelec had issued an arrest warrant against Bedol on June 30 for repeatedly snubbing hearings to investigate alleged discrepancies in the Maguindanao election documents. According to the arrest order issued by lawyer Alioden Dalaig, head of the Comelec law department, Bedol should be brought before the commission Tuesday morning "to explain in person his failure/refusal to obey lawful orders of this commission and the Task Force Maguindanao." Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said Bedol's arrest is a strong signal that the latter should not take the Comelec's orders lightly. Ferrer said Bedol will also be made to sign a commitment document that he will return to the Comelec if the poll body does not finish the hearing Tuesday. Still, Sarmiento said he is optimistic that the poll body would be able to conclude the hearing tomorrow. Sarmiento noted that there is no basis for Bedol to be detained because an indirect contempt proceeding is administrative. He added that if the poll body finishes its hearing by Tuesday and finds Bedol guilty, the Maguindanao election official could be held from 60 days to six months. Did not resist arrest Earlier in the day, Goltiao had said that Bedol did not resist arrest. "He did not resist (arrest). We did not see any firearms in the area when we captured him," the ARMM police chief said in Filipino during in an interview on dzBB radio. Bedol had said he expected to bring Bedol to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) headquarters in Manila by noon. Bedol was recently interviewed on national television with a gun tucked to his waist. He also admitted to owning about two dozen guns, which he said were for his protection in Maguindanao. In a separate interview with reporters in Mindanao, Goltiao said: "We did not handcuff him (Bedol) because we refer to his attending physician who informed us that his blood pressure is fluctuating. We will bring him to the office of the Commission on Elections in Manila. That's the order to us." Goltiao had said Sunday they received "good" leads that would allow them to arrest Bedol before Tuesday. Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr, in a separate interview, said he was not immediately informed of the arrest, but that he was "thankful" it was done. "I am thankful...(Bedol) will have much explaining to do)," Abalos said. Abalos said Bedol will have to explain why he should not be charged for indirect contempt, for snubbing repeated Comelec summons to explain the loss of election documents in Maguindanao. Controversial sweep The administration's Team Unity senatorial ticket got all top 12 spots in Maguindanao, with huge leads over other candidates. Nineteen of 37 Senate bets, including a number of leading Genuine Opposition candidates, also did not get a single vote in the southern Philippines province. GO and some poll watchdogs have alleged fraud in the Maguindanao elections but the Comelec decided to add the provincial canvass to the national tally after the Supreme Court failed to issue a temporary restraining order. Votes from Maguindanao nearly wiped out the lead of GO's Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, who is battling to keep his hold on the 12th and last Senate seat, from about 120,000 votes to merely 4,000 over TU's Juan Miguel Zubiri. Abalos said that while the Comelec will investigate Bedol for indirect contempt, it has tossed to the Justice Department the charges of infidelity in the custody of public documents against Bedol. "We'll investigate the indirect contempt, but the DOJ will investigate the charges of infidelity," he said. Last week, Abalos said Bedol had called him up and promised to show up before the Comelec main office in Manila by Friday afternoon. Aside from contempt charges, the PNP earlier said Bedol might face charges should he fail to present necessary permits of gun ownership. The PNP said only two firearms were licensed under his name. - GMANews.TV