No matter how influential or how powerful the persons behind the killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo are, it is essential that the culprits should be punished, Senator Imee Marcos said on Thursday, March 9.
Marcos, at a press conference in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, was responding to a report that one of the suspects in the Pamplona massacre had named Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. (Neg. Or., 3rd District) as the mastermind.
Degamo and eight others were killed, and 17 others were injured, when heavily armed men opened fire on them at the governor’s residence in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, on Saturday, March 4.
“I heard that and I’m also told they are completing all the evidence because clearly these suspects were merely hired,” she said of the four who have already been arrested.
“It’s essential that we get to the bottom of the conspiracy and no matter how influential or how powerful, I think it’s essential that the culprits should be punished”, she said, without specifically naming Teves.
Teves, in a video posted on his Facebook page earlier, denied involvement in the massacre.
“There has been a spate of killings that needs to be stopped…we cannot allow this rampant lawlessness to carry on,” the senator said.
The recent assassinations of government officials in various parts of the country are very alarming, Marcos said.
Marcos said she was shocked at the recovered high powered firearms and expensive artillery used in the assassination of Degamo.
They looked like weapons used in the Ukraine war and not for an assassination, she said. Law enforcers should act on the illegal proliferation of such weapons, she said.
Marcos said she relayed the information that a great number of Negros Oriental officials wanted a declaration of state of emergency in their province following the assassination of Degamo, but the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) did not feel that it was necessary since some of the suspects had already been arrested.
“It’s really the call of the DILG and the law enforcers, I merely relayed the message of the local officials,” she said.
Marcos said she hopes the assassination of Degamo will not trigger revenge killings.
“This is the evil side of political strife that we need to avoid at all cost,” she said.
Marcos said it is too early for the Commission on Elections to declare hotspots for the October barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls.
However, there may be a need to declare Maguindanao and Negros Oriental as red alert areas, she said.
“Negros Oriental has sadly had a history in recent memory of grave violence,” she said, citing previous killings in the province.
Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelage, Police Special Investigation Task Group spokesman, at a press briefing Thursday said they already have the names of the direct participants and principals in the Pamplona massacre.
On the tagging of Teves as the mastermind in the killing of Degamo, the PNP in Region 7 said: “The declarations made publicly earlier by one of the suspects in Gov. Degamo’s killing were information that we already acquired from the moment we arrested the four suspects six hours from the incident. While we had these significant developments at hand at the early stage of the conduct of massive hot pursuit operations, we maintained that these be revealed in due time not to compromise the conduct of investigations”.
Upon the completion of necessary documents, they turned over to the Department of Justice (DOJ) the suspects and the evidence as part of the process, with their extra-judicial confessions taken in accordance with law, Pelare said.
When they forwarded the case for inquest, they had already the completed picture of what transpired before, during and after the incident, including the identities of the suspects, to include the mastermind, he said.
Currently, the prosecution of the case is under the control of the DOJ, after two of the suspects manifested their willingness to testify in court as state witnesses, he said.
They are confident that all the persons involved in this killing will be properly prosecuted and justice served to the families of the victims, Brig. Gen. Jerry Bearis, PNP 7 regional director, said.
Pelare said the PNP has beefed up security for Degamo’s wake and funeral, and for the families of the other victims of the massacre.*