JUSTICE Serectary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said criminal charges are expected to be filed next week against Negros Oriental 3rd District Representative Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves in connection with the killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight others last March 4.
Teves, who is still out of the country, has been tagged by Remulla as one of the masterminds in the Degamo killing.
Remulla said the cases will be filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which conducted the case build-up.
“We will file the cases next week. We’re looking at next week as the time for the filing of cases by the NBI here at the DOJ,” Remulla said.
Remulla noted that the justice department will be sending a notice to Teves’ last known address upon certification from the Bureau of Immigration that he has yet to return to the country.
“Just to put together a good complaint, takes a lot of work,” Remulla pointed out.
Aside from being implicated in the Degamo killing, Teves is also facing multiple murder charges before the DOJ over the 2019 killing of former Negros Oriental Board Member Miguel Dungog and two others, as well as complaints of illegal possession of firearms.
Meanwhile, Remulla said the technical working group of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) is set to be convened to receive evidence relating to the justice department’s bid to designate Teves and several other individuals as terrorists.
He said the NBI would be presenting the documents to the ATC in support of the DOJ’s plan to tag Teves as a terrorist.
“The NBI is actually presenting the documents. The NBI is the one in charge of the criminal investigation. We’re more of the prosecuting arm,” the DOJ chief said.
“We are trying to be more objective about what we do,” he added.
He, however, insisted that they have seen a pattern of killings in Negros Oriental, bolstering their bid to designate Teves as tsrrorist.
“There is a pattern to the killings.If you have followed the investigation, there is really a pattern to the killings that occured.The people are in fear and even the police that’s why when we talked to them after the killing of Gov.Degamo, everybody was afraid to talk,” Remulla said.
He also noted that the killings also gripped other towns in the province.
Remulla earlier said aside from Teves, the department is working to also designate three to five of his allies as terrorists.
He said one them is military reservist Marvin Miranda, former associate of Teves and one of the alleged masterminds in the March 4 attack.