With four suspects in the killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and eight others attending this week the first preliminary investigation of the case at the Department of Justice, we can see the wheel of justice is rolling.
The lawyer for the Degamo family and the widows of the eight individuals killed with the governor, Levito Baligod, told reporters the suspects affirmed their sworn statements before prosecutors.
The Department of Justice also said it would file charges against Marvin Miranda, arrested in a hot pursuit operation on March 27 in a barangay in Barbaza, Antique where he was allegedly hiding.
He was identified as an alleged mastermind in the killing, charged with nine counts of murder, 13 counts of frustrated murder, and four counts of attempted murder.
He was also identified as the former bagman of suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr.
In a statement, the DOJ said the indictment was based on the disclosures given by certain Antipolo, Javier, Rodriguez, Labrador, and Rivero in their respective extra-judicial confessions that “Miranda played an indispensable part in the planning of the assassination of the governor.”
“The state prosecutors found that Miranda conspired in the commission of the crimes and recommended his indictment, together with accused Antipolo, Isturis, Javier, Pattaguan, E. Gonyon, and JL. Gonyon, who were previously charged in court,” the agency said.
But the lights are focused on Teves, who is still abroad, and whom Justice Crispin Remulla said was “one of the masterminds of the assassination of Governor Degamo” and the “missing piece that will tie up all loose ends of the case.”
“The case is 99 percent finished. Following the arrest of Marvin Miranda, I can tell you that it is only a matter of time before we can put this to bed,” Remulla said.
The Department of Justice, meanwhile, is considering having Teves Jr. designated and proscribed as a terrorist to force him to surrender in relation to the Degamo killing.
“As a solution to the impasse here about the surrender of Mr. Teves or Congressman Teves, we are looking at designating him or proscribing him as a terrorist, to have him proscribed by the Court of Appeals and designated by the Anti-Terror Council because of the acts that happened,” Remulla told the Senate inquiry earlier this week.
But in an online press conference, the congressman’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said the Anti-Terrorism Law had a specific definition of what terrorism is or the crimes supposed to be in relation to sowing fear and panic among the public.
The Degamo killing has prompted Malacanang to create a national inter-agency task force to “prevent the spread and escalation of violence elsewhere in the Philippines and to preserve peace and order in Negros Island.”