Friday, June 22, 2007 Ledesma: Who’s it that Bedol’s working for? By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
FINALLY they found the missing Maguindanao certificate of canvass, which Provincial Poll Officer Lintang Bedol claimed were lost. Will it appears that the municipal election officers have their own copies which at first glance appear to be authentic.
The COCs total tally will give Migs Zubiri an edge of 16,335 votes over Koko Pimentel since the former garnered 186,518 votes against the latter’s 58,622. The difference will effectively erase the present lead of Koko.
It’s now a legal battle. Koko of course does not want the votes counted, meaning “exclude.” But that will be disenfranchising the 300,000 votes plus in Maguindanao. It’s just like asking Comelec to exclude the results of the elections in Makati because it appears incomprehensible that Victor Wood had more votes than the frontrunners of the Team Unity. This sounded like an absurdity but the fact remains that it is true. It happens the same way with Maguindanao except that it’s the Genuine Opposition who is now on the losing end.
But there is more to this Maguindanao fiasco than what meets the eye. I think there is a deeper mystery that surrounds this provincial election supervisor named Bedol. His being a friend of the now famous Comelec Commissioner Garcillano makes him an interesting penchant for investigation. As we all know cheating is not a monopoly of the administration. Politicians of whatever persuasions indulge in fraud and murder. The likes of Bedol can be propositioned or maybe intimidated. It is not farfetched. Why he went missing for sometime and then surfaced to declare that the COCs were lost, is now an important episode now that the Comelec finally found other set of copies of the COCs. Where was Bedol during his secret disappearance? With whom was he talking to? Or who was holding him incommunicado?
This makes an interesting mystery novel. In the meantime let us wait for the final say of the Comelec. If we listen to the lawyers of Koko and Migz they will only mesmerize us with their biases. The only incontrovertible fact that we have to concede is that Maguindanao is one place on earth next to Makati where you have a command vote. You have the Ampatuans in Maguindanao and you have the Binays in Makati. Why should the gander be different from the goose?
BTW, I don’t buy this bull about exporters losing their pants because of the appreciation of the peso against the dollar. If there is a sector that is affected it’s our overseas Filipino workers. For manufacturers, plantation owners, service providers and traders to claim that they are losing money due to the bigger value of the peso now is like advancing a lame excuse for tax holiday. This will not wash. These sectors import commodities for their operations and they use dollars. They pay less pesos now for the dollars they need. In the language of ERAP, which some of them still idolize, “weather weather lang yan”. Well, of course the dollar that some of them are salting abroad will naturally diminish in value. But who cares?
