MANILA, Philippines — The legal counsel of suspended Negros Oriental congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr. yesterday said they will ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to inhibit from the investigation of the Degamo case as they believe the DOJ is already prejudiced and biased.
In an interview with reporters yesterday, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio said they will go to the DOJ today to ask that another investigative agency take over.
He said they will ask for the transfer of the investigation to the Office of the Ombudsman.
“Ever since, the DOJ has been saying ‘Teves, Teves, Teves.’ The investigation is not yet over, and yet they are saying Teves. After one month, the case was supposedly 99 percent solved, but nothing happened,” he told reporters in Filipino.
“The witnesses have already recanted and there were other pieces of information stated by one of the witnesses, saying that the mastermind is another man, is being disregarded by the DOJ,” he added.
He likened the DOJ’s investigation to a “kangaroo court.”
“If a person is being investigated, whether civil or criminal, they are entitled to the cold neutrality of an impartial judge. If you are already biased, or prejudiced, then what do we expect from the investigation of the DOJ?” he said.
“What is this? Is this just moro-moro? Are we just fooling ourselves here? Is this merely a kangaroo court?” he added.
Teves has been tagged as the alleged mastermind behind the killing of then Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo in March this year.
Teves has yet to return to the Philippines since he left the country days before the murder.
The moving of the investigation from the DOJ to another investigative body is one of the things that may prompt Teves to come back to the Philippines, Topacio said, aside from the assurance of security against threats once he returns.