The Court of Appeals has turned down an appeal filed by two of the alleged assailants in the March 4, 2023 assassination of Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo.
In a 33-page decision dated Feb. 19, the appellate court’s 4th Division dismissed the petition filed by accused Joric Labrador and Benjie Rodriguez, who were allegedly among the six attackers caught on video assaulting Degamo’s compound in Barangay San Isidro, Pamplona, Negros Oriental.
The incident killed Degamo and eight others and caused injuries to 17 individuals who were part of a crowd in line to receive financial aid in the governor’s residence.
The CA affirmed the Aug. 22, 2023 order of Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 40 Judge Rebecca Guillen-Ubaña denying the motion to quash, and rejected the petitioners’ claim that their recanted statements of admission should not be considered against them.
“A perusal of the petitioners’ extrajudicial confessions shows that there is nothing therein which indicates that they were coerced or were laboring under duress when they executed the same. In fact, a reading of said confessions immediately shows that petitioners were informed of their constitutional rights, especially those applicable during custodial investigation, and that, with their express consent, they were also assisted by lawyers from the PAO (Public Attorney’s Office) in executing the same,” the CA said.
The Court also noted the controlled and collected manner in which the petitioners narrated, in thorough detail, how they prepared and executed the nefarious plot of assassinating Gov. Degamo, which included the distinct circumstances they encountered from the time they were recruited to go to Dumaguete City up to the time they were arrested after the shooting incident.
“To the mind of this Court, such details could not have been easily contrived and conjured out of thin air by persons who were tortured in order to execute such confessions,” it said.
Aside from the two, other accused in the case who initially admitted their participation have since recanted their confessions implicating Degamo’s political rivals in the province led by then Rep. Arnolfo Teves and former Gov. Henry Pryde Teves.
The government is securing the former lawmaker’s repatriation back to the country after he fled and sought political asylum in Timor Leste.*PNA