Wants private armies dismantled, Rep. Teves fears being implicated
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday declared the March 4 murder of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo as “purely political” even as he ordered the police to dismantle private armies and round up all illegal firearms in hotspots around the country.
Degamo and eight other people were killed when gunmen fired on them at the governor’s house in Pamplona town as he was handing out assistance to poor families.
“The killing of Governor Degamo is entirely unacceptable, and it will not stand. This cannot go unpunished,” the President said.
Unlike other recent attacks on politicians where the motives were unclear, he said the murder of Degamo—a campaign ally during his presidential run in 2022 — was “purely political.”
“The usual thing to do there is to look for illegal firearms,” Mr. Marcos said. “As long as there are… illegal firearms, there will be few such crimes. Those private armies—[we] really [need to] dismantle all that.”
Meanwhile, Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. said Degamo’s killers were probably known to the people in the area, pointing to a video circulating on the internet that showed a dog not barking when the killers entered the area.
Teves, a political rival of Degamo, expects to be implicated in the assassination.
“How were the killers able to enter that easily, or rather, how were they let inside? Based on my personal analysis, it’s as if the people at the gate knew them, that’s why they were able to enter with no resistance,” said the congressman and brother of Henry Teves, the one declared winner in the previous election but was later unseated as governor in favor of Degamo.
“Even the dog knew the intruders. How could I say that the dog knew them? Look at the actions of the dog in the video. It didn’t even bark and instead wagged its tail,” he added.
“You know, this is what I’ve long feared. Why? I expected to be implicated in this,” Teves said in a video message posted Monday morning, March 6, referring to Degamo’s death.
Citing his “many sources of intel,” Teves, who is out of the country for medical reasons, said someone was trying to pin him with the governor’s killing.
“Now I’ve just learned that some people out there want to pin me down. Maybe some of these just want to seek attention or want to be famous for their own benefit. I’m not pointing to anybody in particular, but you know who you are,” he said.
Former presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo said the government must declare war on criminality in the wake of the recent attacks on local officials, saying “there appears to be a breakdown of law and order in places where the political feud is at its bloodiest.”
“The prime duty of the government is to serve and to protect the people. Let the people feel that service and protection,” he added.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) earlier said it is getting closer to identifying those behind the bloodbath in Degamo’s house.
PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said four suspects have expressed willingness to cooperate with investigators.
The Department of Justice on Monday said complaints for multiple murders and illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives have been filed against three of the suspects arrested in connection with Degamo’s assassination.
In a joint press conference, Justice Undersecretary Nicholas Felix Ty and Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said charges were filed against Joven Javier, Joric Labrador, and Benjie Rodriguez, who were arrested by police and Army troopers hours after the attack on Degamo.
They were found to be in possession of several high-powered rifles, a rocket launcher, ammunition, and explosives.
Complaints for violation of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act and illegal possession of firearms and explosives were filed before the Office of the City Prosecutor in Bayawan City while the multiple murder complaints, for inquest, were lodged before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Negros Oriental.
Charges were also filed for the injuries sustained by 16 people in the attack.
More charges are expected to be filed, Ty said, as DOJ will take over the cases from the local prosecutor.
He said the DOJ is working with the Philippine National Police and the Department of the Interior and Local Government for the transfer of the respondents to Metro Manila for protective custody.
The DOJ official said two witnesses have already been referred to the Witness Protection Program as the police are intensifying the hunt for the remaining gunmen and the mastermind behind the attack.
DOJ Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Jose Dominic Clavano later said two of the suspects in Degamo’s killing and eight witnesses are willing to cooperate with the authorities.
“The DOJ is currently evaluating two of the respondents [to determine] if they can be admitted to the Witness Protection Program,” Clavano said.
He declined to identify which among the three suspects in custody were willing to cooperate.
A fourth suspect had earlier been killed after he tried to shoot it out with police.
Saturday’s attack came more than two weeks after the Supreme Court upheld the Commission on Elections’ resolution recognizing Degamo as the winner of the 2022 Negros Oriental gubernatorial race.
The Court dismissed the petition filed by former governor Pryde Henry Teves – Rep. Teves’ brother—after the poll body credited the votes of nuisance bet Grego Gaudia Degamo, who used the name “Ruel Degamo” in the ballots, to the slain governor.
Based on the official results, the slain governor got the highest number of votes in the gubernatorial race with 331, 726, followed by Teves with 301, 319, and Doc Mark Macias with 45, 454.
Ruel Degamo on the other hand got 49,039 votes.
Teves initially refused to vacate the provincial capitol, resulting in a standoff that lasted until October 2022.
Degamo was a veteran politician, having served as Negros Oriental governor for more than a decade.
He first assumed office in 2011 following the successive deaths of former governors Emilio Macias II and Agustin Perdices.
Also on Monday, the Army said the ex-soldiers arrested in the Degamo case had long been dishonorably discharged for various violations of the Articles of War.