DOJ on Degamo probe: End is near

MANILA, Philippines — The investigation into the assassination of Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo is nearing its end as the Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed there is video footage of the mastermind giving out orders on how to execute the attack, even as police identified yesterday the gun that killed the governor.

“This case can be closed soon, except that all the perpetrators have not been rounded up,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said, noting that with the arrested suspects now cooperating with authorities, the “end is near.”

Last Tuesday, four suspects in the attack – Joric Labrador, Joven Javier, Banjie Rodriguez and Osmundo Rivero – were turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) after they signified intent to cooperate with probers.

Yesterday, Remulla told reporters he had been shown a statement by the suspects pointing to the alleged mastermind of the attack on Degamo’s house that also ended the lives of eight others.

“There’s a statement already to the effect that there was a mastermind, but we have to evaluate it properly. But there’s already a statement I saw pointing to a mastermind,” he said.

The DOJ secretary said this statement of the suspects would be supplemented by a video of their conversation with the alleged mastermind.

“We have not established a motive yet, but the person they’re talking to was on video. A live conversation happened on video with the person they’re pointing to (as the mastermind),” he added.

But Remulla stopped short of answering queries on whether or not this mastermind is a politician. “There are a few more people that we have to round up,” he said.

Earlier, Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. issued remarks that he received information that he is being tagged as the mastermind behind Degamo’s murder.

For context, the governorship was hotly contested by Degamo and Teves’ younger brother, Pryde Henry.

In a separate press briefing at Camp Crame in Quezon City yesterday, Col. Jean Fajardo, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson, reiterated that the PNP has not mentioned any name of a mastermind in the Degamo case investigation.

“We are not naming names, so far, because the investigation is not yet finished,” Fajardo said.

Gunmen killed Degamo last Saturday morning while he was holding an aid distribution activity at his residence in Pamplona, Negros Oriental. Eight others present at the event also died while more than a dozen others, including provincial officials, were wounded.

The four suspects were arrested the same day following a hot pursuit operation by a local detachment of the Philippine Army and the PNP, in which seven high-powered firearms used in the attack were seized.

‘Smoking gun’

Yesterday, the PNP revealed that results of the ballistics examination conducted on the firearms seized from the suspects in Bayawan City showed that one of them was indeed the gun from which bullets that killed Degamo were fired.

Five 5.56 assault rifles and two rocket-propelled grenade launchers were among the pieces of evidence recovered in Barangay Cansumalig, about 500 meters from where the suspects abandoned their getaway vehicles.

In addition, the PNP said investigators lifted latent prints from the getaway vehicles for DNA testing.

The owners of the vehicles were also identified and are being investigated for their possible involvement in the crime, the PNP said in a statement.

Electoral protests

In another development, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Erwin Garcia vowed to speed up the resolution of pending electoral protest cases after being called out by Sen. Risa Hontiveros that Degamo’s murder could be the result of the delayed resolution of his election protest.

“It’s true. The process of resolving cases here in the Comelec must be hastened,” Garcia said in a radio interview yesterday.

Confirming that the Comelec is still saddled with 2,000 pending resolutions of cases, Garcia said: “We respect Sen. Hontiveros, her observation is right. But the Filipino nation should also understand that these thousands of protest cases received by the Comelec are pre-election, election proper, post-election.”

These are disqualification complaints, cancellation of candidacy, annulment of proclamation and failure of elections, among other cases, and he said Comelec has to hear them all.

In October last year, the Comelec proclaimed Degamo as the winner in the gubernatorial race in Negros Oriental and nullified the victory of his rival, the brother of Rep.

Teves, in a recount that credited votes for a nuisance bet who carried the nickname “Ruel Degamo” to the sitting governor.

Negros Oriental cops

Meanwhile, the purging of police officers in Negros Oriental is already underway.

After 75 police officers from Bayawan were relieved from their posts last Tuesday, Fajardo said 56 police personnel assigned in Santa Catalina town were also replaced.

“They will be transferred to the provincial office temporarily while the program for them is being arranged, because they will have to undergo a refresher course and values formation program,” Fajardo, speaking in Filipino, told reporters.

The relief and transfer of police officers in Negros Oriental was ordered by Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos in the wake of Degamo’s killing.

Replacing police officers in Bayawan was based on the recommendation of the special investigation task group probing Degamo’s murder, said Fajardo, adding that their replacements are personnel from police offices in Central Visayas.

Requests for security

Amid growing insecurity among elected local officials, the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP) has asked the PNP for additional security personnel for its members.

These concerns were raised during Tuesday’s meeting between ULAP members led by their president, Quirino Gov. Dakila Carlo Cua, and Abalos at Camp Crame.

At a briefing about the meeting, Fajardo said: “Some of them (local government officials) expressed their intention to avail (themselves of) additional security, particularly those who are perceived to be receiving some concern with respect to their personal security.”

Fajardo did not say how many local government executives made the request for additional security detail based on credible threat assessments.

PNP regulations dictate that government officials and other very important persons can only have a maximum of two security escorts from the Police Security and Protection Group.

Notably, when Degamo was killed, six Army troopers and two police officers were part of his security detail due to the high level of threat to his safety. – Robertzon Ramirez