Bedol asks Comelec to reconsider contempt conviction

Former Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol filed on Monday a motion for reconsideration with the Commission on Elections (Comelec), questioning his conviction for indirect contempt.

Bedol’s lawyer Andrei Bon Tagum said they opted to file the motion rather than elevate the case to the Supreme Court “to give the Comelec a chance to correct its decision.”

“There’s a chance that the Comelec will reverse itself, who knows, it might want to correct itself. It might be committing a mistake by maintaining its decision,” Tagum told The STAR.

Bedol was meted a six-month jail term and a P1,000 fine after he was found guilty of four counts of indirect contempt stemming from his failure to attend the canvassing and the subsequent hearing related to the Maguindanao votes; his challenge to the Comelec to sue him over such absence and his boasting that he had a personal armory.

Initially, Bedol’s camp was inclined to seek intervention of the Supreme Court but later decided against it.

“We want to exhaust all legal remedies available for us before going to the Supreme Court and filing the (motion) is one of them. I might be faulted by the Supreme Court if I don’t do this,” he noted.

The lawyer is confident that his client would eventually win the case.

“We have introduced new arguments in our motion. One of these is that the Comelec has no basis for (coming up with such a) decision. The decision is contrary to law, it is not based on evidence,” he added.

But Tagum reiterated that the Comelec had no jurisdiction over Bedol as it was exercising administrative or ministerial functions when it subpoenaed his client because the poll body was sitting then as National Board of Canvassers.

He maintained the Comelec could exercise its power to punish contempt only if it is exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions as a whole body.

The poll body junked this argument in convicting Bedol.