POLICE yesterday said the chief security officer of a sugar mill owned by former Negros Oriental governor Pryde Henry Teves played a big role in the March 4 killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight others.
The security officer was arrested during a raid on the sugar mill in Bayawan City in Negros Oriental on Friday last week, where various firearms and explosives were found.
Teves is a brother of suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves who has been tagged as the one who ordered the hit on Degamo, by suspects arrested shortly after the attack at the late governor’s house in Pamplona town.
On Monday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Rep Teves was “being considered” as among two to three masterminds in the killing. Yesterday, Remulla said Rep. Teves is now considered a “fugitive” because he is suspected to have committed a crime, even if an arrest warrant has yet to be issued against the congressman.
Teves’ camp has said the lawmaker is not a fugitive because no arrest warrant has been issued.
Remulla said in an interview with ANC, “When one is suspected of having committed a crime, he is already considered a fugitive. He just did not show up… The actions would speak louder than words. It’s that he is not showing up, that he is evading us, or trying to evade the law.”
Remulla has asked Rep Teves “to stop the drama” and just get back home and face the allegations that he has ordered the assassination of Degamo.
The suspended congressman has denied involvement in the Degamo killing but has not returned to the country despite the lapse of his travel authority and calls for him to face allegations, prompting the House of Representatives last week to suspend him.
‘BIG ROLE’
PNP spokeswoman Col. Jean Fajardo, in a press briefing at Camp Crame, said Nigel Electrona, a discharged policeman, has been sharing information with authorities.
She said based on information provided by Special Investigation Task Group (SITG) Degamo, Electrona “played a big role in the killing of Gov. Degamo.”
Electrona, security guard Jeson Baillo Timtim, and firetruck driver Dionillo Estoconing Mayagma Jr, were arrested by the police last Friday during the raid at the HDJ Bayawan Agri-Venture Corp, a sugar mill owned by Pryde Henry Teves who was not around at that time.
Authorities initially seized 15 rifles and handguns, and 9,615 assorted ammunition, among others, during the raid. Subsequent searches led to the seizure of more firearms and ammunition and improvised explosive devices. On Monday, a sniper rifle and some 1,650 assorted ammunition were found in the area.
On Sunday, policemen raided the house of Electrona and another alleged conspirator in the killing of Degamo, in Bayawan City, based on search warrants. Among those found in Electrona’s house were pictures of Degamo and his family, maps, and picture of the Degamo residence allegedly used during the planning of Degamo’s murder.
“We recovered at his house pictures of Gov. Degamo and his family, sketch, maps, and route going to the residence of Gov. Degamo and the SITG believes these were used in the during the planning stage prior to the killing of Gov. Degamo,” said Fajardo.
PLANNING
Degamo was killed by around 10 heavily-armed men, mostly former Army soldiers, while supervising the distribution of aid to poor families at the compound of his house.
“According also to the SITG, Nigel… took part in the planning. He was present during the briefing (prior to Degamo’s murder) and he was among those who helped the gunmen… during the casing and surveillance prior to the killing of Gov. Degamo,” said Fajardo.
Fajardo said former governor Teves has a lot of explaining to do in connection with the seizure of firearms, ammunition and explosives at his sugar mill and the involvement of Electrona in the Degamo killing.
“Pryde Teves has to explain a lot of things due (to the seizure of firearms, explosives) and at the same time because the chief security of HDJ played a big role in the killing of Gov. Degamo,” said Fajardo.
Asked if Electrona is cooperating in the investigation, Fajardo said he has been “sharing details” but did not elaborate.
“Hopefully, he will help further so that we will have a clearer picture what happened before, during and after the incident involving the death of Gov. Degamo,” she said.
Fajardo said Electrona was assigned in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental when he was a policeman. He was arrested in 2016 for possession and use of illegal drugs and was subsequently dismissed from the service in 2017.
After his dismissal from the police service, Electrona was employed by Teves.
Fajardo said the PNP is still preparing charges of illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives against Electrona, Timtim, Mayagma and Teves in connection with the raid at the sugar mill.
CASES EXPECTED
Rep. Teves’ lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said their camp has been expecting that cases will eventually be filed in court because of the DOJ’s repeated pronouncements against the lawmaker.
Topacio said their camp is prepared for the eventuality because “anyone who has a modicum of perception will know that that is where this is leading (to).”
“Notwithstanding the protestations and the artifices of our officials that they are trying to be impartial by using the words ‘he may be involved,’ ‘it is possible,’ I think it is leading to that,” he told CNN Philippines.
Topacio, who has been questioning the DOJ’s impartiality, said Remulla’s pronouncements against Teves is “prejudicing” the minds of public prosecutors who are yet to conduct a preliminary investigation.
What is alarming, he said, is that the justice secretary, himself, is the one “making obliquities and innuendos as to the guilt of my client” at a time when Degamo’s killing has yet to reach the stage of preliminary investigation.
“Stop the juridical striptease. They’re peeling off one partial clothing at a time… just file the case already,” he said.
Topacio said he knew that Rep Teves would be accused of masterminding the governor’s assassination the minute he learned that Degamo was shot. “I immediately called my client and said, ‘Pare, sigurado ako idadawit ka dito (Bro, I’m sure they’ll implicate you here). I can feel it in my bones because I’ve been there before.”
“Sabi niya, ‘Papaano nila ako idadawit? Ano kinalaman ko diyan.’ Sabi ko, ‘Well, I hope so. I hope I’m proven wrong’ (He said, ‘How can they implicate me? What do I know about it? I said, ‘Well, I hope so. I hope I’m proven wrong’),” he said. — With Raymond Africa and Wendell Vigilia
