JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said he met with former Negros Oriental governor Pryde Henry Teves before the Holy Week break.
During the meeting, he said, Teves tried to clear his name of any link or involvement in the March 4 attack that killed Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight others provincial government employees and civilians.
Teves is a younger brother of suspended Rep. Arnolfo Teves who is being linked to the killing. He has not surfaced since last month when his travel authority expired.
Rep Teves, according to Remulla, may be in Cambodia.
“I think he’s still in Cambodia. I think he’s still there,” Remulla said.
Remulla told reporters that Pryde Henry Teves, during their meeting, merely repeated his public statements that he is not involved in Degamo’s killing, as well as his waiver on his bank accounts, phone records and emails to allow investigators to check the veracity of his claim of innocence.
“Actually, he’s in the process of trying to clear his name that he was not involved. He was not involved in this incident. He had no idea this was going to happen and that he just wants to live in peace,” Remulla said of Teves during their meeting.
“Yun ang sabi niya.That he did not in any way participate in any of these things that happened,” he added.
Remulla did not say what day the meeting took and where, but he said it was witnessed by his staff at the DOJ.
Asked if the former governor made any offer on the Degamo case, Remulla declined to give details.
“Actually, we discussed some of the matters at length but of course we try to avoid matters that would in any way compromise our position or his position because he was in the presence of counsel. Attorney Raymond Fortun was with him,” he said.
Remulla also declined to say if authorities have uncovered evidence that would link former governor Teves to Degamo’s murder.
“I don’t think that I should comment on that because it is what it is. How the facts stand, how the testimonies stand will link everybody concerned to the crime,” he explained.
Remulla has tagged Rep Teves as one of the masterminds in the Degamo killing although prosecutors have yet to formally indict him.
But the younger Teves has been charged by the police with illegal possession of firearms and explosives after a cache of firearms, ammunition and explosives were found and recovered last month in a property that he owns and used as a sugar mill in Santa Catalina town.
The raid was an offshoot of Degamo’s killing and part of the government’s effort to track down the assassins.
The Senate is set to hold a hearing on the Degamo killing on April 17.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros yesterday said she wants to know what triggered the assassination.
She said the “particular unique angle” she wants to pursue during the hearing is if the Commission on Elections’ decision to nullify the votes for nuisance candidate Ruel Degamo in favor of the slain governor could have been the root cause of the murder.
“The question being, could this slay of Governor Roel have been avoided if the nuisance candidate had been declared earlier on, and if the then first proclaimed governor was allowed to occupy the gubernatorial post,” she told CNN Philippines.
Pryde Henry Teves was initially declared winner in the Negros Oriental gubernatorial elections on May last year but the Comelec in October 2022, declared Roel Degamo as the true winner after the votes obtained by Grego “Ruel Degamo” Guardia, who was later declared a nuisance candidate, was transferred to the governor.
Hontiveros said the Comelec should have been quick to resolve cases involving nuisance candidates before the actual election day.
Sen. William Gatchalian has called on the Comelec to resolve disqualification and nuisance candidates cases before elections.
In Senate Bill No. 1061, he cited the Degamo case and a quick resolution could potentially diffuse political tensions and deter bitter political conflicts in the country. — With Raymond Africa
