Solon’s political party has agreed to expulsion?
THE political party of Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. on Wednesday urged him to return to the country, after another 60-day suspension was meted on the embattled solon who is being linked to the killing of his political rival, provincial governor Roel Degamo.
Rizal Rep. Michael John Duavit, secretary general of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), made the call following information from House sources that the party, which is a member of the administration coalition, has agreed to a plan to expel Teves if he will not return to work on July 31, the lapse of the two-month suspension.
Aside from the suspension, Teves was also stripped of all his committee memberships.
“The plea is, Cong. Arnie, please think of this not as an attack on me but please look at it as a lifeline,” Duavit said on the floor when he explained his vote in favor of the House’s decision to approve the recommendation of the ethics committee to suspend Teves Jr. for another 60 days for his continued absence without a travel authority, which it said constituted “disorderly behavior.”
“Hell on earth is being separated from those we love. Cong Arnie, take the lifeline. Please come home,” Duavit said.
Teves, who is accused of masterminding the March 4 attack that killed nine other persons, left for the United States on February 28. He was supposed to return on March 10. Teves, in video conferences, has been denying involvement in the attack. He has also been refusing to return home, claiming there are threats to his life, despite safety assurances from Speaker Martin Romualdez and President Marcos Jr. himself.
Duavit said Teves’ attempt to seek political asylum in Timor-Leste last month discredited the House of Representatives and the government because he made it appear that the country does not have a working judicial system.
“We’re asking you to have trust and faith in us, your peers,” Duavit said. “If you did not mean to besmirch our State, if you did not mean to do any harm to our House, all of this can be cured by just coming home. We are asking you to have trust and faith in us your peers.”
The bid for political asylum — and its rejection — was made public last month by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla who has tagged Teves as mastermind in the March attack on Degamo’s residential compound in Pamplona town.
Duavit said the asylum bid is like “making the accusation that your country does not have the capability to offer protection for those persecuted or that your own country is unwilling to provide protection for the persecuted.”
“Worst of all, it may also imply that your very own country, your very own government is the perpetrator of such persecution,” he said.
Duavit said Teves may have been “misadvised” when he tried to apply of political asylum. Teves’ legal counsel is lawyer Ferdinand Topacio.
CHALLENGE
Topacio said their camp is studying the possibility of challenging in court the House suspension, even if Congress is an independent body, a co-equal branch of the Judiciary.
“We are not foreclosing judicial recourses with respect to the actions of the House committee on ethics,” he told TeleRadyo.
Reacting to Duavit’s claim that Teves may have been receiving wrong advice, Topacio said: “Sorry to disappoint him, however, but he is not the only one who is aware of the implications of an application for political asylum. Cong. Teves happens to be a very intelligent man, and he knows exactly what he is doing and the ramifications of whatever actions he takes.”
“If Mr. Duavit wants to know what another definition of hell is, it is listening to the pontification of other people who think they know better than you,” he added.
STRONG CASE
Remulla, in a press briefing yesterday, said the recantation of 10 suspects charged in the March 4 attack will not lead to the junking of the case, similar to what happened to the government’s case against detained former senator Leila de Lima whose key prosecution witness also retracted his testimony.
Remulla insisted the Department of Justice has a strong case against the Degamo murder suspects.
“What happened in the De Lima case does not speak of the recantation in this case. The De Lima case was unsupported by other evidence, sabi nila (they say), to which I disagree but just the same, the De Lima case is not a way of determining whether or not recantation is effectively sanctioned by the courts,” he said.
“The Supreme Court has held in so many cases that recantations are unreliable so do not make a big deal of the recantations,” he added.
To recall, Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 204 Judge Joseph Abraham Alcantara used the recantation of key prosecution witness former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos, as basis for his May 12 decision to acquit De Lima in the case of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, when she was the DOJ chief.
Ragos claimed he was coerced and threatened by then-Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to implicate De Lima in the narcotics trade.
The DOJ has filed a motion asking the court to reconsider its decision junking the case against De Lima based on Ragos’ recantation.
In the Degamo case, 10 of the 11 suspects in custody and charged before Branch 51 of the Manila RTC have also retracted their testimony on their participation in the crime and Teves’ alleged role in the killing.
The 11th suspect in custody, Marvin Miranda, never confessed any role in the murder.
‘REAL EVIDENCE’
Remulla remained unfazed by the recent developments in the Degamo case, stressing anew that the DOJ still have a strong case against the suspects and Teves.
“The recantations are being spoken of as if they were the gospel truth. Ang lumalabas kasi diyan (it appears), recantations are frowned upon by the courts. We have real evidence, other evidence, and sooner or later it will be proven in court,” he said.
“So, do not make a big deal of recantations. If there are recantations, there is perjury in what they say,” he added.
Remulla said the recantation shows a “conspiracy” to cover up the crime.
“It shows a conspiracy among the 10 of them that they were really part of a conspiracy when all of them suddenly recant. It just proves our case further that the conspiracy is there,” he said.
On Wednesday, Remulla said they are eyeing Miranda as the one who told the suspects to recant their testimonies.
He earlier told reporters that Miranda acted as the “director or casting director” in the attack on Degamo while Teves appears to be the “main mastermind” in the case.
Teves is not yet included in the case in the Manila RTC as the multiple murder and frustrated murder cases against him are still undergoing preliminary investigation at the DOJ.
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 several high-profile killings and other criminal activities. — With Ashzel Hachero
