“Malapit na ang araw mo (your days are numbered). You will have to answer for what you did to the governor, and a lot more.”
This was the message of Pamplona Mayor Janice Vallega-Degamo to her husband’s killers after charges were filed before the City Prosecutor against the four captured suspects Monday, March 6.
Gov. Roel Degamo and 8 others were killed and 17 others were injured in a massacre in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, on Saturday.
Mayor Degamo said the capture of the four suspects, and the subsequent filing of charges against them, has given them a renewed sense of hope. “This means there is a chance that we will know the mastermind, and know the real motive of the killing,” she said.
She wants the Philippine National Police to focus their investigation on politics because she really believes the killing was politically-motivated, the mayor said.
Mayor Degamo said she believes that the mastermind behind her husband’s killing could be behind the killing of so many others.
She has also ruled out the possibility that Saturday’s massacre at their home was an “inside job”.
She, however, admitted that in a way, there were lapses in their security protocols.
“The Governor’s receiving area should not have been near the gate. We did not anticipate that. While there is a security guard that guards the gate, he opens it every time there is a visitor to ask what he or she wants. It shouldn’t be that way because (the assailants) pushed their way in,” she said.
Another possibility she raised was that there could have been someone who got inside the compound, pretending to be one of those who needed the governor’s help but was actually giving instructions to the assailants through cellphone.
“It was more like that, and it seemed that the place was studied for a long time because when the pictures of the suspects were shown, some of our people said they think they saw those persons there before”, she said.
“Perhaps they were there to take pictures or trying to determine where the governor will sit, who are the people with him,” the Pamplona mayor said.
She asked the public to continue sending information to the government that would lead to the capture of the remaining suspects. She urged the people of Negros Oriental to pray.
She thanked the public for their overflowing expression of sympathy. “We are happy because in a way, we feel we are not alone. Even our political enemies, who are peaceful people, are shocked over what happened. We are happy there are people who still believe that we can still have peaceful politics, just like the way it used to be in Negros Oriental.”
Mayor Degamo said her husband had received several threats. She recalled that sometime in 2019 or 2020, a Nissan X-trail SUV, found to be carrying ammunition, was intercepted in Kalibo. “Someone had tipped the governor that it was on its way to our province, and that he was the target”, she said.
Before his proclamation, the governor had received another warning to be careful in going to the venue for the oath-taking ceremony.
“In Pamplona, in our home, there were people who were apprehended. They could have been snipers but they were unable to pull it off. We just could not imagine that it would [eventually] happen right inside our home,” Mayor Degamo said.
She added that she continues to hope that one day soon, justice will be given to her husband and the other victims. “He may not be perfect, but he was a peaceful man, and in my belief, a peaceful man does not deserve a cruel death.”
After lying in-state at the Capitol from Thursday to Sunday, the body of the governor will be brought to his birthplace in Bonawon, 70 kilometers south of Dumaguete, until the tentative burial date on Thursday, March 23.*