THE Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has filed three murder complaints against Negros Oriental Third District Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr. and five others in connection to the killing of three individuals in 2019.
Murder charges were filed against Teves; alias Hannah Mae, his secretary; Richard Cuadra alias “Boy Cuadra”; Jasper Tanasan alias “Bobong Tanasan"; Rolando Pinili alias “Inday”; and Alex Mayagma before the Department of Justice in Manila on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.
CIDG Director Brigadier General Romeo Caramat Jr. said it was established based on the statements of the witnesses that the respondents were “directly” involved in the killings of Miguel Dungog, Lester “Tom-Tom” Bato, and Pacito Libron. The killings allegedly happened in 2019.
“In sworn written statements of the witnesses, reiterated and emphasized that Congressman Arnolfo A. Teves Jr. was the one giving the orders and served as the mastermind in the said killings while his secretary, alias ‘Hannah Mae,’ was part of the planning and in-charge of giving operational expenses,” said Caramat.
“In our investigation, Cuadra acted as the principal by direct participation in the shooting to death of victims, Dungog and Libron. Meanwhile, the killing of Bata was perpetrated by Pinili,” he added.
Caramat said Tanasan and Mayagma acted through indispensable cooperation.
Dungog, former president of the Philippine Councilor’s League in Negros Oriental, was gunned down within the compound of the Siliman University Medical Center on March 25, 2019.
Bato was killed on May 26, 2019 in Sitio Labugon, Barangay Nagbo-alao, Basay, Negros Oriental, while Libron was slain in Barangay Malabugas in Bayawan City on June 23 of the same year.
Caramat said Cuadra and Mayagma both have standing arrest warrants for murder charges.
The filing of charges against Teves came following the assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo over the weekend.
Teves earlier shot down rumors linking him to Degamo’s death.
He said that while he and his brother, former Negros Oriental governor Pryde Henry Teves, were Degamo’s political rivals, they were not capable nor had the motive to have the governor executed.
Four of the gunmen in Degamo’s assassination were arrested and they were transferred to Manila for security purposes.
Two of them were being considered to be placed under witness protection program as the police noted that they executed vital information that could identify the brains behind Degamo’s kill order. (SunStar Philippines)