BREAKTHROUGH | Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla and officials of the National Bureau of Investigation and the police on Monday announced a breakthrough in the investigation of the March 4, 2023, murder of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo. (File photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
A lawyer for the family of slain Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo said a manhunt was underway for one more mastermind behind the March 4 assassination plot that also left eight other people dead.
“He is the one who developed a set of informants inside the circle of [Degamo.] He was also the one who provided the plan on how the hit men would enter and [leave] the residence of the Degamo family,” Levito Baligod told reporters in Camp Crame.
Baligod refused to name the other mastermind, saying only that authorities were tracking his whereabouts.
In a press conference on Monday, officials of the Interagency Special Task Force Degamo identified suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. and his longtime security and bodyguard, Marvin Miranda, as the masterminds behind the killing of Degamo.
Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos, the task force chair, said that Teves was allegedly the main mastermind while Miranda, who was arrested on March 31, recruited the 11 former soldiers who carried out the assassination plot.
The announcement did not shock Degamo’s wife Janice, the mayor of Pamplona town in Negros Oriental.
“There were several incidents in the past where they (Teveses) were almost exposed as those behind a number of crimes [in the province]. The recent news that Arnie was the mastermind in the murder of my husband did not come as a surprise,” she told the Inquirer on Tuesday.
Janice said they expected the assailants to spill the beans and identify Teves as the person who ordered the hit on her husband. “There is no one so desperate to eliminate the governor other than them (Teveses). So it’s not really a surprise for us.”
Sufficient evidence
She added that they were hoping the representative’s brother, Pryde Henry, would be charged as well because “we believe that he was part of the plot to kill the governor.”
“This just goes to show that there is really sufficient evidence to support the accusations against Arnie. We hope that justice will be served and that all the perpetrators as well as those behind the killing will rot in jail,” Janice said.
When asked by reporters for his Holy Week message to those behind the killing of Degamo and the other victims, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, meanwhile, replied: “It is a time for us to look at our sins, to repent.”
He added that they were now getting more information about Miranda’s role.
“The case is practically closed save for a few details. The masterminds, the actors, the participants are already under custody, save for one or two who still have to account for what they did,” Remulla said.
“As far as I know, we have gotten to the point that we can win the cases already. Most of the cases have been filed, save for a few. And I think we are in the position to convict people already,” he added.