Goltiao told ABS-CBN News Channel that Bedol was alone when served his warrant of arrest, having been cited for contempt by the Commission on Elections for repeatedly failing to show up to explain the missing canvassing documents, despite the summonses from the poll body.
A source from the ARMM police, however, said a team from the ARMM police arrested Bedol midnight “somewhere in Davao City” but declined to divulge information on the how the arrest was effected and where, citing security reasons.
The source said Bedol was brought to the Davao Doctors’ Hospital at dawn Monday to have his blood pressure checked.
By the time he left for Manila on the last Philippine Air Lines flight at 7:30 p.m., he had an eye patch on his right eye, allegedly from a surgical operation to remove cataract.
The regional police chief and the city police chief here were unable to answer reporters’ queries on Bedol’s arrest. They told reporters there was no coordination with them, city police chief , Senior Supt. Jaime Morente, said.
In a press statement, detained Anakpawis party-list representative Crispin Beltran today said Bedol's supposed disappearance was “deliberate and most likely conducted with knowledge of the Comelec,” and that there were only two possibilities emerging: that “Bedol is now being coddled by the government and protected from prosecution. The second is that the man is under threat of being liquidated – permanently silenced and prevented from exposing all he knows about what really transpired during the Maguindanao polls," he said.
"Bedol should be made to surface and detained under the Comelec's supervision and the Philippine National Police (PNP) even as formal investigations are prepared to be imitated," Beltrans aid.
Goltiao, however, told ANC they intended to present Bedol to the Comelec tonight but was told to do it at 10 a.m. Tuesday since the Comelec has no detention facility. In the meantime, Goltiao said, be would have Bedol billeted in a hotel near the Comelec.