Teves seeks dismissal of firearms, explosives raps

MANILA, Philippines — Suspended Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. is seeking the dismissal of two separate charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives filed against him over the discovery of weapons in his home in Bayawan City during a police raid in March.

Teves, as well as his sons Kurt and Axel, did not attend the preliminary investigation on the cases but the lawmaker’s counsel Ferdinand Topacio filed on his behalf a 15-page consolidated motion on Friday before the Department of Justice (DOJ) to dismiss the charges for “utter lack of evidence to support a finding of probable cause.”

His sons are co-respondents in one of his illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

In the motion, Teves raised questions about the search’s legality, especially since he was out of the country when the raiding team searched his house.

“The implementation of the search warrant is questionable. It is not in our procedure that someone first enters a place to be searched without witnesses,” Topacio told reporters, accusing police of planting the evidence and thus violating the lawmaker’s constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Andres Manuel, the lawyer of Teves’ sons, also assailed the search as illegal.

“In sum, complainants miserably failed to discharge their duty to establish probable cause against respondent Teves Jr. as nothing has been shown to support his alleged constructive possession of any of the confiscated articles, much less of the premises where they were allegedly found,” the motion read.

The two complaints are now awaiting resolution.