BY GERARD NAVAL

THE Commission on Elections yesterday ordered the arrest of Maguindanao election supervisor Lintang Bedol.

The arrest warrant issued by the Comelec law department said Bedol will have to spend six months in jail at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Aside from imprisonment, Bedol was also fined P1,000.

Bedol was accused of being behind the alleged electoral fraud in Maguindanao, where the administration’s Team Unity scored a 12-0 sweep in the senatorial race in the May elections while 18 candidates received zero votes.

The Comelec en banc has cited Bedol with indirect contempt for, among others, snubbing repeated summonses of the commission, unlawful assumption and loss of election documents of Maguindanao, and openly challenging the poll body to file charges against him.

Alioden Dalaig, law department director, said the commission has sent copies of the arrest warrant to Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, head of the PNP-Autonomous Region on Muslim Mindanao, and the Comelec office in Maguindanao.

Bedol’s whereabouts are unknown but he is believed to be in Maguindanao. Bedol was last seen in public on August 8 when he posted P15,000 bail.

The issuance of the arrest warrant followed the Supreme Court’s denial of Bedol’s petition for a temporary restraining order on the Comelec’s order for him to be detained. The detention order was issued in July.

A motion for reconsideration filed by Bedol remains pending before the tribunal.