The Marcos administration will ask the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) to issue a Blue Notice against the suspects in the killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, a Justice official said Saturday, March 18.
“We have taken concrete steps for the release of an international lookout bulletin,” Department of Justice (DOJ) spokesperson Mico Clavano said in a Presidential Communications Office press release.
The color-coded notices, according to the INTERPOL website, are international requests for cooperation or alerts allowing police in member countries to share critical crime-related information and are issued by the General Secretariat at the request of a member country, the press release said.
A Blue Notice is for the collection of “additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.”
Clavano said cases have been filed against the four gunmen, and that the government is investigating 10 more individuals.
The case buildup is “solid” and the government just has to “close all the little gaps”, he said.
He said Rep. Arnolfo Teves (Neg. Or., 3rd District) “is one of those that we are suspecting to be the mastermind behind the Degamo slay”.
He, however, noted that “everyone has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.”
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Clavano said there are still eight cases filed against the lawmaker, following the dismissal of one illegal possession of firearms case.
Teves has denied involvement in the assassination of Degamo.
Mayor Janice Degamo, widow of the slain governor, has appealed to Congress to have Teves dismissed as a member of the House of Representatives.
“I hope Congress will support our request that he be expelled from the Congress,” she said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.*