SUSPENDED Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves has confirmed he will attend virtually a Senate hearing on the assassination of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and other political killings, Sen Ronald dela Rosa said yesterday.
The first hearing of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, which Dela Rosa chairs, is scheduled on April 17.
Teves is being linked to the March 4 killing in Negros Oriental. He has not surfaced since the travel authority issued by the House expired on March 9. A few days after Degamo was killed, Teves appeared in a video posted on Facebook, denying any involvement in the incident. He said he was in the United States for a medical treatment. He has defied calls for him to return to the country, saying there are threats to his life. There are reports he is in Cambodia.
Dela Rosa, in an interview with the Senate media, said Teves’ camp communicated with his committee’s secretariat to confirm his attendance to the hearing, although virtually.
The hearing will be held in relation to a resolution filed by Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros on the killing of Degamo and other key political figures elsewhere.
“We need to hear both sides of the issue so that the hearing will be successful. It’s good that he [Rep. Teves] will attend so we can hear his side. Otherwise, the inquiry will be one-sided if we don’t hear anything from Rep. Teves,” Dela Rosa said in Filipino.
The committee should have held its first hearing last month but the National Bureau of Investigation and the PNP requested a re-scheduling to give them time for a thorough investigation and file charges against all the identified suspects.
Dela Rosa said it will be expected that Teves will try to clear his name which has been dragged in the killing of Degamo, but he said he will not allow him to use the hearing for grandstanding.
“We expect him to behave properly and we respect him as a member of the House. Though suspended, he is still an elected official. We will extend to him interparliamentary courtesy as long as he does not get unruly,” he said.
Dela Rosa also said he will give Degamo’s widow, Pamplona town Mayor Janice Degamo, a chance to confront Teves, but it should all be addressed to him as the committee chairman for orderly proceedings.
Dela Rosa said he will also ask for updates from the PNP in relation to the other killings in Negros Oriental and assassinations of key political figures in other parts of the country.
He said he already asked the Commission on Human Rights to deploy its investigators on the field to gather more facts and pieces of evidence on the said killings.
According to reports, at least seven politicians have been killed in the first months of the Marcos administration, including former vice mayor Danilo Amat of Dolores, Quezon province; former Vice Mayor Romeo Sulit of Lobo, Batangas; and former Mayor Rosita Furigay of Lamitan, Basilan.
There were also attempted assassinations on Cagayan Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda, Lanado del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr, and Mayor Ohto Montawal of Datu Montawal, Maguindanao del Sur.
