BACOLOD, Philippines – The widow of assassinated Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo expressed frustration that ex-governor Pryde Henry Teves managed to post bail for his terrorism financing case as she called on prosecutors to do better and charge him with non-bailable offenses as well to ensure he remained in detention.
In an interview with broadcaster Alex Santos over Radyo Agila on Thursday, Mayor Janice Degamo of Pamplona, Negros Oriental, called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to build cases for non-bailable offenses against the Teveses based on the outcome of a series of raids against them in March 2023.
Degamo said prosecutors could have at least filed a case of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against the Teveses.
She referred to the raids led by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on the three houses of Teves’ brother, expelled Negros Oriental 3rd District representative Arnie Teves, in Bayawan City and on the family’s sugar mill, HDJ Bayawan Agri-Venture Corporation, at Tolong compound in Barangay Caranoche, Santa Catalina on March 10 and 24, 2023, respectively.
The former congressman, a fugitive currently under house arrest in Timor-Leste, was identified as the alleged mastermind behind the March 4, 2023 assassination of Degamo’s husband. The government designated the brothers and 11 others as terrorists for their alleged links to a string of killings and harassment in Negros Oriental.
During the 2023 raids in Bayawan and Santa Catalina, authorities seized at least 25 firearms, ammunition, and explosives.
Mayor Degamo said the evidence found during the raids would have warranted the filing of more cases against the Teveses.
She said she and her family were waiting for prosecutors to charge the Teveses with violating the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act, a criminal case that prevents respondents from posting bail.
Authorities served the arrest warrant against Pryde Henry on Thursday morning in Dumaguete City, a day after it was issued by Judge Marlon Jay Moneva of the 74th branch of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court.
Lieutenant Stephen Polinar, spokesman for the Negros Oriental Police, said the former governor surrendered at a CIDG office in Dumaguete and posted a P600,000 bail bond, with P200,000 for each of the three terrorism financing charges against him.
In a press statement on Thursday, the justice department said Clyde Henry was “apprehended.”
Major Nazarino Emia, CIDG-Negros Oriental director, said Pryde Henry was released at around 3 pm the same day.
Polinar said police in Negros Oriental were placed on alert on orders from the province’s police director, Colonel Ronan Claravall, following Pryde Henry’s release.
Janice has accused the Teveses of being responsible for the broad daylight attack by heavily armed men in their Pamplona home in March last year, and a string of killings in Negros Oriental when the family was in power. The March 2023 shootings killed 10 people, including the governor.
The assassination took place months after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) nullified Pryde Henry’s election victory in the 2022 elections in Negros Oriental, credited more votes to Roel Degamo, and proclaimed the latter as the real winner of the gubernatorial race in Negros Oriental.
“Hindi pa tapos ang laban (The fight is not over yet),” Degamo’s widow said. – Rappler.com
