JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said the National Bureau of Investigation will ask the Department of Foreign Affairs to cancel the passport of suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves to force him to return to the country.
This will be after multiple murder charges are filed against him in connection with the March 4 attack in Negros Oriental that killed governor Roel Degamo and eight others. A 10th victim succumbed to injuries on Sunday, more than two months after the attack on the Degamo’s residence in Pamplona town.
Remulla said the murder complaints are expected to be filed before the DOJ either on Friday or Monday next week.
“When we file the case, we will file the cancellation of Teves’ passport,” Remulla told CNN Philippines.
“We will only cancel it when there is a cause to cancel it, which is a court case for murder or terrorism or whatever cases will be filed,” he added.
He said they are also looking at whether Teves is using the diplomatic passport given him as a lawmaker.
“He has a diplomatic passport which we can also seek the cancellation of if it was used in his travels abroad but we will validate that information if he used the diplomatic passport when he went to another country. Because a diplomatic passport is not a right but a privilege given to government officials and since he has been suspended from the House, then he shouldn’t be using it,” Remulla said in a chance interview.
He said he also received information that Teves also has a “golden passport” that he may have used in his travels.
“These are sold by different states. We can find out if he has a passport from another jurisdiction,” he said.
ASYLUM BID DENIED
Remulla said Teves is still in Timor-Leste despite the denial of his application for a protection visa with intent of asylum, as reported by Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Interior Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday.
Timor-Leste’s authorities have given Teves five days to leave although he can use the time to contest the denial of his asylum bid.
Remulla said he expects Teves to go back to South Korea following the denial of his plea for asylum.
“I think he will go back to Korea. He was seen in Korea, Cambodia and Bangkok where most of his people are. I think he will just go around these countries. When the charges are filed, we will file for cancellation of his passport,” he added.
The DFA, in a statement issued late Tuesday, said Timor-Leste’s authorities confirmed their rejection of Teves’ bid for asylum.
“In accordance with the decision of the Timor-Leste Government, Representative Teves has been granted a period of five days to depart Timor-Leste. During this time, he also has the option to file an appeal regarding the decision,” the DFA added.
Teves flew to the US late February for medical treatment but the travel authority issued to him by the House of Representatives expired on March 9.
He has said he could not return because of threats to his life. The chamber suspended him for his continued absence.
Speaker Martin Romualdez yesterday said the House leadership views “with great concern” reports Teves has applied for political asylum in Timor-Leste, warning him that the House can impose another disciplinary action against him after his 60-day suspension.
“Should Cong. Arnie continue to defy the return to work order after the lapse of the 60-day period of his suspension, the House committee on ethics and privileges may be constrained to reconvene and consider another possible disciplinary action against him,” the Speaker said. “This is our recourse in order to preserve the dignity, integrity and reputation of the House of Representatives.”
The committee has the power to recommend to the plenary to extend the suspension of expel the lawmaker.
‘RETURN HOME’
Romualdez discouraged Teves from seeking refuge in another country “and abandon his sworn duty to serve as member of the House of Representatives.”
“Rather than evade investigation by Philippine law enforcement agencies, Romualdez said Teves “should return home immediately and face the accusation against him. I had repeatedly assured him that the House of Representatives will secure his personal safety upon his return to the Philippines,” he said.
Degamo’s widow, in a TV interview, said she is “very grateful” to Timor-Leste for rejecting Teves’ asylum bid.
“I believe that is a very good decision of the government of East Timor (Timor-Leste) for denying him (Teves’ petition for asylum) because after all, what happened to my husband is not a political thing,” said Mrs. Degamo.
“He was pointed as a mastermind (behind the) murder of my husband and several others… I am very grateful to the government of East Timor,” she said.
Aside from being implicated in the Degamo killing, Teves is also facing multiple murder charges before the DOJ over the 2019 killing of three persons in Negros Oriental, and complaints for illegal possession of firearms.
The DOJ has also moved to designate Teves as a terrorist under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 due to his alleged involvement in high-profile killings and other criminal activities.
‘NO BASIS’
Teves’ lawyer Ferdinand Topacio downplayed Remulla’s statement to seek the cancellation of his client’s passport, adding there is no legal basis right now for such a move.
Topacio explained there are only three instances when government may cancel a passport, namely, when an individual is a fugitive from justice, is convicted of a crime, or the passport was fraudulently acquired or has been tampered with.
He also said hey are prepared to fight moves to tag Teves a terrorist, adding that Remulla’s claim that the latter is a terrorist is “preposterous.’”
“Any request for proscription will have to undergo judicial scrutiny. We are ready and willing to participate in any judicial proceeding where the rules are clear and the playing field is clear,” Topacio said in a statement.
Topacio also laughed off Remulla’s earlier claim that Teves is part of a gambling group engaged in sowing terrorism.
‘I hope Mr. Remulla can hear himself and realize the preposterousness of a gambling group being engaged in terrorism, assuming without conceding, that Mr. Teves is indeed part of such group. Since when has sowing terror been beneficial to any gambling enterprise? A big LOL to that,” he said.
GAMBLING, TERRORISM
Remulla said Teves is head of a gambling organization engaged in terrorism.
“It’s a criminal organization, a gambling organization. That’s actually where everything came from. All of these can be traced to the illegal gambling activities,” he said in a chance interview.
“It’s a gambling organization that did, that may have done terrorist acts,” he added.
Remulla has said the DOJ is also looking into the claims aired during the Senate investigation on Degamo’s killing that Teves is involved allegedly in illegal online cockfighting and small town lottery (STL) operations in the province.
Degamo’s widow, Pamplona town Mayor Janice Degamo, said claimed during the Senate inquiry that Teves and his brother, former governor Pryde Henry Teves, are sourcing their money from the operations of illegal online sabong and STL in the province.
The former governor has denied Degamo’s allegations while the suspended lawmaker said his involvement in online sabong was long before it was declared illegal.
“The fact that this money is being used, was used to finance terrorism, should be one angle that we should follow as people who are investigating a crime so dastardly,” Remulla said then.
FUGITIVE, TERRORIST
Remulla said he considers Teves to be a fugitive even if no murder charge has been filed against him in connection with the Degamo killing, “because he also has another case for a double murder committed in 2019 and search warrants were also served in his house which is positive for many effects and, of course, the fact that he is really the main suspect in the murder of Governor Degamo as the mastermind makes him a fugitive from justice.”
He added the process of designating Teves a terrorist is ongoing with the Anti-Terrorism Council.
He said Teves may be designated a terrorist about “two weeks from now.”
Once Teves is proscribed as a terrorist, Remulla said, his assets can be frozen by the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
“The advantage of course of designation is that the assets can be frozen and assets that are used to cover up, to bribe, to do things that will help him evade responsibility will be frozen. There are other consequences that may be part of being investigated as a terrorist,’ he said, adding that his travel will also be curtailed as other nations will be informed of his designation.
“I think the proscription process will be the one that will make life more difficult because then that will give the duty of rendition to all member-states of the United Nations to arrest any person charged with terrorism to deliver him to trial to the court, to the country where he came from,” he added.
NEGROS POLLS
The PNP and AFP support the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in Negros Oriental to give their respective troops the chance to concentrate on keeping the elections in the province as peace and orderly as possible after the nationwide elections scheduled in October is done.
Police Brigadier Gen. Anthony Aberin, Central Visayas Police Regional Office chief, said the regional police office will support the postponement of the BSKE to ensure that the elections in Negros Oriental is peaceful considering that the province has been experiencing intense political rivalry even if the barangay and SK officials are supposed to be non-partisan candidates.
“Para at least the concentration, yung agam-agam ng community sa Negros Oriental ay mawala, Yung full force po ng region 7 is kung na-postpone ay makaka concentrate po kami sa region 7 para ma-secure, magkaron ng peaceful barangay elections sa Negros Oriental (So that at least the concentration, the doubt of the community in Negros Oriental will be erased. The full force of region 7, if the elections is postponed, can concentrate so we can have a peaceful barangay elections in Negros Oriental),” Aberin told the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs during the fourth day of the hearing on the Degamo assassination and other killings in the province.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, committee chairman, said a postponement of the BSKE in Negros Oriental will give security forces time to pour in their resources in the province after the nationwide elections is over.
Brigadier Gen. Leonardo Pena, military brigade commander in Negros Oriental, said the Armed Forces is in favor of deferring the elections in the province.
Pena said the province has 557 barangays and it would be difficult for military troops to concentrate on keeping an orderly and peaceful elections with their limited number of men.
Commission on Elections Chairman George Garcia, who was also present in the hearing, said the poll body also supports the postponement of the elections in Negros Oriental but said there might be a number of legal obstacles.
Garcia said the Comelec has the power to postpone an election in any part of the country in case of “violence, terrorism, insurrection, or rebellion 30 days from the cessation of the reason for postponement.”
He said the Comelec can reschedule the elections for 30 days to 90 days but the law is not clear as to the period when the reason for postponement should take place before the commission can declare the deferment of the BSKE in Negros Oriental.
“When should be those grounds exist? Can they be existing before the conduct of elections? The law is not clear on that,” he said in Filipino.
He said the law was also unclear on the holdover capacities of the present barangay officials since it is not under the Comelec. — With Wendell Vigilia, Victor Reyes and Raymond Africa
