PNP revamps Bayawan City police after negor gov. Degamo killing
ALL personnel of the Bayawan City Police Station in Negros Oriental have been relieved and transferred to the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office (Noppo) headquarters in Sibulan town, while the manhunt for remaining suspects in the deaths of governor Roel Degamo and eight others continues.
On Tuesday, March 7, 2023, the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO 7) replaced them with police personnel from different Negros Oriental police stations.
According to Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesman of Special Investigation Task Group Degamo, the replacement team will take over the tasks of the relieved personnel.
Pelare did not say how many police personnel were relieved for security reasons. He said the move was an operational and tactical decision.
“What we want is to make sure that we have fresh legs on the ground to conduct hot-pursuit operations,” he said in a mix of English and Cebuano.
The police official believes the remaining suspects have fled to the mountains in the province.
Pelare said they’ve increased police and military presence in Negros Oriental to maintain peace and order.
Governor Degamo and the eight others were gunned inside his family’s compound in Pamplona town last Saturday morning, March 4.
Degamo was rushed to a private hospital in Dumaguete City where he died a few hours later. He sustained 11 bullet wounds in his body, according to results of an autopsy conducted by the Philippine National Police’s regional forensic unit.
His wife, Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo said the bullet wound to the governor’s heart proved to be the most fatal.
‘Political’
The firearms and explosives recovered from the four suspects during a follow-up operation in Barangay Cansumalig, Bayawan City underwent ballistic examination. Results revealed these were used in the murders of Degamo and eight other people at his residential complex in Pamplona town on Saturday, March 4.
The seized weapons included five assault rifles, a B40 rocket-propelled grenade launcher and bullets.
Janice is satisfied with developments of the case, such as the filing of charges by the PNP against the accused and the suspects’ sworn declaration identifying their mastermind.
“We are pleased with the development as the identities provided coincided with the suspects we were thinking of,” she said.
The Degamo family agreed with Vice President Sara Duterte in thinking that the incident’s primary motive was political and that politics should be considered in the investigation.
When asked her reaction to the statement of Negros Oriental Third District Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr., denying any involvement in the killing, the mayor said she was surprised why he was so defensive in his message.
In a video statement posted on his Facebook page Monday, March 6, Teves denied rumors that he and his family had any hand on Degamo’s murder.
“If I had the intention and capability to do that, then I should have done it just before the election began,” Teves said.
“What is my motive? My brother and I will also not benefit from this (Degamo’s death). If the governor dies, it will be the vice governor who will assume the former’s post,” he added.
The congressman’s brother, Pryde Henry Teves, ran against Degamo during the May 2022 Local and National Elections and was proclaimed winner until the Commission on Elections overturned his victory.
Janice hopes that reporters from other media outlets outside of Negros Oriental would follow the story rather than dismiss it.
Meanwhile, senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Pia Cayetano, Joel Villanueva, Win Gatchalian, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Go, Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Robinhood Padilla, as well as actor Philip Salvador, visited the wake of the slain governor in his house in Dumaguete City to offer condolences to his family.
Mayor Degamo said the sympathy of national officials is a great help to identify the mastermind.
She said she felt relief when former President Duterte called her and told her to be strong and not to surrender. (AYB / PJB / TPT)