Bedol disowns Zubiri 'victory'

MANILA, Philippines - The lawyer of former Maguindanao election officer Lintang Bedol denied yesterday that results of the provincial elections that were counted at the National Canvassing Center had shown senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri topping the 2007 polls in Maguindanao.

Bedol’s counsel Reynaldo Princesa yesterday said the results counted in favor of Zubiri were prepared by a second set of provincial canvassers led by Emilio Santos.

“The election result prepared by Attorney Bedol was never counted, so where is the electoral sabotage?” Princesa asked during the hearing on the petition for bail of Bedol at the sala of Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

He said the official election result prepared by Bedol showed that senatorial candidate Luis “Chavit” Singson was the No. 1 candidate in Maguindanao with 196,157 votes, while Zubiri was the top candidate (with 195,823 votes) in the results that were counted at the National Canvassing Center at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

Princesa said the official result prepared by Bedol was lost before it was officially counted in the national canvass.

This developed as detained former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. failed to show up yesterday at the Pasay RTC for his arraignment on electoral sabotage charges in connection with the alleged cheating in Maguindanao during the 2007 midterm elections.

Jail officials informed Mupas that Ampatuan is currently confined at the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center (AFPMC) in Quezon City.

Felda Domingo, spokesperson for Pasay RTC Branch 112, said Mupas has reset the arraignment of Ampatuan on March 19.

Ampatuan, a co-accused of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Bedol, was supposed to be brought to the court by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) from the AFPMC where he has been confined since last Friday after vomiting blood.

Ampatuan was originally detained at the BJMP detention cell at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig City. Ampatuan and various other suspects are facing multiple murder charges in connection with the so-called Maguindanao massacre.

Meanwhile, Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City RTC Branch 221 handling the multiple murder case filed against the Ampatuans and the other suspects in the Maguindanao massacre had granted the motion filed by prosecutors to conduct an examination of slugs and metallic fragments removed from some of the victims’ cadavers.

Reyes said the ballistic examination is necessary to determine the caliber and other properties of the slugs and metallic fragments for purpose of evidence.

In a five-page order, Reyes also ordered the Branch Clerk of Court to transmit the slugs and metallic fragments to the Firearms Identification Division (FAID) in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

The order noted that FAID was directed to submit within 30 days from receipt the result of the ballistic examinations with the panel of prosecution and Department of Justice being given copies of the results.

Prosecution witness Felinio Brunia Jr., PNP medico-legal officer, had earlier presented in court the slugs and metallic fragments he removed from the cadavers.

The prosecution team said there is a need to examine the slugs to determine their caliber and other properties.

However, the camp of the Ampatuans opposed the move, saying the “accused will have no way of confirming or authenticating said slugs and metal fragments that came from the cadavers.”

The defense lawyers said it is detrimental and prejudicial to the interest of the accused.

They claimed that the slugs and metallic fragments are already contaminated from the time they were recovered from the victims’ bodies, and have thus lost their probative value.

Tomas Dimaandal Jr., a witness of the prosecution, said “the slugs are made of copper and lead that cannot be destroyed and that even gunpowder can’t do damage to it through the passage of time.” With Rhodina Villanueva