‘Hello, Garci’ lawyer to be promoted as judge?

LINTANG Bedol, the provincial election supervisor of Maguindanao reassigned to Sultan Kudarat shortly before the May 2004 elections and who figured in conversations with former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in the “Hello, Garci” recordings, is hoping to be named lower court judge in Mindanao.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) confirmed that Bedol filed an application to become a judge at the Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) in Magpet, Cotabato and Parang, Maguindanao, as well as the Shari’a Court District in Marawi City on July 18, 2005. He had also applied to be a Metropolitan Circuit Trial Court (MCTC) judge in Maguindanao in 1990.

But the JBC, which prepares and submits a shortlist of three nominees to the President for appointments and promotions of candidates and members of the judiciary, has yet to take up Bedol’s application. Nor has he been scheduled for an interview. Action on his application had been deferred because he was for a long time the only applicant to the post.

In yesterday’s story by the Tribune, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has called the attention of the JBC on an “impropriety” on the judicial council’s part to even consider the appointment of Bedol as judge.

“If he is the same Lintang Bedol in the Garci tapes, his name should be removed from the list. His reputation is tarnished,” the senator was quoted by the Tribune as saying.

With the confirmation from the JBC, Pimentel said it should suffice to tell the council that it should “drop his application to the nearest trash can.”

Pimentel’s indignation is understandable. Bedol is reportedly very close to Garcillano, whose appointment the senator had tried to block. Pimentel identified Garcillano, then still a regional director of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in Mindanao, as a dagdag-bawas (vote padding and shaping) operator in earlier polls where he ran and lost.

And as the wiretapped conversations portrayed, Bedol had been entrusted several interesting tasks during the elections, besides reporting the results to Garcillano.

In the tapes, Bedol spoke to Garcillano at least twice, on May 29 and June 1, 2004. He was referred to in calls by Garcillano on the following dates: May 25, 26, 29 and 30, and June 1 2004. (Transcripts of the conversations can be read here.)

The conversation that supposedly took place between Garcillano and Arroyo at 9:47 a.m. on May 29 had her asking about the extent of her defeat in Cotabato City. Garcillano replied, “Hindi ho siguro sosobra ng (It probably wouldn’t exceed) forty, Ma’am. Nag-usap na kami ni Atty. Bedol….Kami ni Atty. Bedol, nag-usap ho ngayon (Atty. Bedol and I talked just now). But I’ll give you the exact figure ma’am in a little while, para ma-ano ninyo.” The final outcome of the Cotabato City vote was Arroyo: 8,510; Poe, 29,417.

In a phone conversation on May 25, a certain Danny, apparently worried about the Cotabato count, asked Garcillano: “Sir, ano kaya, nagawan kaya ng paraan ni Bedol (Did Bedol manage to do something about this)?”

Former senator Robert Barbers (now deceased), who purportedly called up Garcillano on May 29 to inquire about the Comelec en banc’s resolution transferring the canvassing venue from Cotabato City to Manila, was told, “…Bine-verify ko, pero si Atty. Bedol, yung ating tao dun, hindi makontak (I’m verifying it, but I can’t contact Atty. Bedol, our man there).

Bedol’s name was also mentioned by a woman, who was later identified as Clarita Callar of Comelec Region XXII, complaining about Bedol to Garcillano, “Ba’t inaaway ako ni Bedol (Why is Bedol picking a fight)…”

As chairman of the Cotabato City board of canvassers in the 2004 polls, Bedol presided over the canvassing for the gubernatorial election where opposition candidate Angelo Roncal Montilla had led Pax Mangudadatu until the votes from the last three of the province’s 12 towns came in, most of which went to Mangudadatu. Montilla filed a poll protest with the Bedol-led board of canvassers, but later elevated his case to the Comelec office in Manila after the board dismissed it outright.

The Bedol board also caused the rescheduling of the canvassing for the hotly contested city mayoralty race, but which it decided to hold a day earlier, supposedly without notifying Koalisyong Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) candidate Estrelita Juliano and her counsel — as indicated by Bedol’s discussion with Garcillano regarding Juliano’s case that was recorded on tape.

A recent Supreme Court ruling, however, has ordered the Comelec to rehear the proclamation protest filed by Juliano against the incumbent mayor, Muslimin Sema.

Should Bedol make it to the JBC shortlist and eventually named as judge, Pimentel said this only means that Arroyo’s 2004 elections political payback has not ended. Only recently, the following known lieutenants of Garcillano in Mindanao were appointed to top Comelec regional posts:

• Renato Magbutay, election director of Region X
• Carlito Ravelo, acting assistant election director of Region X
• Remlane Tambuang, election director of Region XI
• Ray Sumalipao, assistant election director of Region XI and concurrent acting election director of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)
• Teopisto Elnas Jr., election director of Region XII
• Cirilo Nala Jr., acting election director of CARAGA Region (covering the provinces of Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur)
• Francisco Pobe, acting assistant election director of CARAGA Region
• Vilfredo Balisado, acting assistant election director of Region IX