Former Maguindanao Election Supervisor Lintang Bedol. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman approved the filing of criminal case against a former official of the Commission on Elections for not filing his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).
In a six-page resolution, the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao approved the filing of the case for violation of Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees against Lintang Bedol, former provincial election supervisor of Comelec in Cotabato and Maguindanao.
Section 8 of R.A. No. 6713 requires all public officials and employees to accomplish and submit declarations under oath of their assets, liabilities, net worth and financial and business interests including those of their spouses and of unmarried children under eighteen (18) years of age living in their households.
Bedol is a government witness against former President, now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Comelec chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. who allegedly plotted to rig the result of the 2007 senatorial elections.
Investigation showed that Bedol has not been filing his SALN since 2002.
Bedol justified his non-filing of SALNs by claiming that all election documents and his personal files including his 2005 and 2006 SALNs were stolen when his office at the Capitol Sharif Aguak, Maguindanao was ransacked in May 2007.
“Such claim even strengthened his indictment as why would respondent simply store the SALNs among his personal documents and not file them with the Office of the Ombudsman or Comelec Manila,” the resolution stated.
Bedol further stated that he also did not file his SALN in 2007, 2008, and 2009 because he went into hiding due to threats to his life to prevent him from reporting to the media the anomalies during the 2007 elections.
The office of the Ombudsman noted that Bedol was no longer a public official in 2007 after he went absent without official leave and resurfaced only in 2011.
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