Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Editorial: Comelec murder
THE death of a Commission on Elections (Comelec) officer through murder is being lamented by officials and personnel of the embattled agency whose mandate for ensuring whatever credibility the country's elections have had been challenged anew with this latest sordid episode.
Apparently, Comelec law department chief Alioden Dalaig's murder is said to be linked all the way back to renegade Comelec supervisor Lintang Bedol, whose whereabouts remain unverified by the police authorities long after he was accused of being responsible for that incredulously implausible 12-0 shutout of opposition candidates in Maguindanao province in the last May 14 elections.
Aside from the slap on the wrist he got from then Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., not much was heard from Bedol whose arrogance and self-righteous blather rivals that of the very politicians whose interests he supposedly served through that 12-0 shutout that all but set the stage for last month's parody of the local elections in which barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) candidates engaged in shameless politicking to get elected.
And now this Comelec official's murder, which exposes the agency to further evaluation and speculation from the public.
One of the questions to be asked, though it would sound sensitive owing to the way he died, was what was Dalaig doing at a casino and why he is frequenting said establishment when he is supposed to earn a government salary that won't exactly enable him to spend most of his waking time gambling money away?
This had to be asked because for all their perceived authority government officials are accountable to explain to the public how they manage to gamble at some pricey casino where its customers are supposed to be millionaires and foreigners with enough money to burn the night away. And of course ex-Presidents with more than enough money to buy mansions.
The way we understand it, mid-level officials earn adequately but Dalaig is said to frequent the casinos more frequently than usual.
Then again, the police may just drop that little angle in favor of Bedol, whose reputation simply cannot get any better than this murder and any claims of innocence he may make would hardly stand up to public scrutiny and criticism.
Anyway, for the victim's family we hope that justice be swiftly delivered and the perpetrators as well as the masterminds brought to bear for this murder.
At least in this instance we can bring some resolution and not allow criminals to sow havoc and terror in order to claim the lives of people both civilian and official alike.
