Bedol no longer in ARMM – Goltiao

Election supervisor Lintang Bedol is no longer in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“We believe that Bedol is not within our area of responsibility,” said Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, ARMM police director.

Goltiao said they can no longer locate Bedol, who is the subject of a warrant of arrest issued by the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which sentenced him to six months in jail for indirect contempt.

Goltiao said Bedol learned about the warrant of arrest ahead of the police, thus giving him enough time to hide.

He said the Comelec issued the warrant of arrest last Dec. 22 but the police received a copy of the arrest order on Dec. 24, or two days later.

The Dec. 31 deadline imposed by the Comelec on the ARMM police to arrest Bedol has lapsed, and the poll body’s spokesman, James Jimenez, said they have not received any report from Goltiao.

“We have not received any return from him (Goltiao) even in terms of his promise to submit a plan (on how Bedol would be nabbed),” Jimenez said.

Goltiao initially snubbed the poll body, but was forced to appear before it on Dec. 11 under pain of being cited for contempt and be charged with an election offense.

Jimenez said the Comelec commissioners will meet next week and Goltiao’s failure to report will “certainly be one of the first orders of business.”

Goltiao said a number of police units have raided places where Bedol could be hiding but with no positive results.

Goltiao called on the public to relay to the police any information that could lead to the arrest of Bedol.

Bedol became controversial after the national and local elections on May 14 last year when several certificates of canvass were reported to be missing, and when he snubbed the summons issued to him by the Comelec.  – With Sheila Crisostomo