Tagged as STL, E-sabong bagman: Cebu cop linked to Arnie Teves

Philippine Star News Service

CEBU, Philippines — A town mayor in Negros Oriental has tagged the officer-in-charge of Tabuelan Police Station, Captain Allen Germudo, as the bagman of suspended Negros Oriental 3rd District Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr. An accusation Germudo vehemently denied.

Siaton town Mayor Fritz Diaz revealed during the Senate investigation into the killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and eight others on March 14, 2023 that Germodo would allegedly collect money from E-Sabong and Small Town Lottery (STL) and distribute this among fellow police officers.

“Yan si Germudo sir, yun ang bagman, siya yung namimigay (ng) pera sa mga police using the STL and online sabong money…And we can back, Sir, na merong magsabi na siya talaga, PNP din sir,” Diaz told Senator Ronald " Bato" Dela Rosa, chairman of the chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs of the Senate.

Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, wife of the late governor Degamo, also claimed during the Senate hearing that the proceeds of STL and e-sabong allegedly fueled the criminal activities in Negros Oriental.

The information caught Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) officials by surprise. Lt. Col. Mark Gifter Sucalit, CPPO deputy director for operations, said they will seek the guidance from Police Regional Office-7 on the issue.

Germudo denied the allegations, saying he had been assigned in Cebu Province since October 2022.

“Ngano man mahimo tang bagman sa STL nga na-relieve nako diha mga last year pa. Wala naman ko diha sa Negros Oriental, naa naman ko sa (Cebu) Province, kana ako sa nang klaruhon, ako sang klaruhon unsa na nga alegasyon,” Germudo told reporters yesterday.

Prior to his designation as OIC of Tabuelan Police Station on March 21, 2023, Germudo was assigned as deputy station commander of Oslob Police Station.

Before his transfer to Cebu, Germudo was assigned at the Santa Catalina Police Station in 2020 and then at the Zamboangita Police Station in 2021, both in Negros Oriental.

Germudo vowed to personally attend in the next Senate hearing to clear his name. The PRO-7 said it will monitor the development of the hearing.

Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesman of PRO-7 Director Brigadier General Anthony Aberin, said Germudo will keep his post for now despite the serious allegation.

Pelare is confident that the controversies hounding the PNP organization will be over soon. Despite the negative issues, Pelare believes that the core values of the PNP remain intact.

“Kini mga normal kaayo ni nga mga situation sa PNP, as in another agencies daghan sad og issue sa other agencies, but sa PNP we will not lost sight of our function to deliver the best police services in Central Visayas,” said Pelare.

Meanwhile, Degamo’s widow and a number of other Negrenses pointed to the suspended congressman as behind the series of political killings in the province.

Mayor Degamo named Teves, Jr. as the mastermind in the murder of her husband and other Negrenses as back as the year 2011.

“I stand before the honorable members of the Senate committee, not only as a wife seeking justice for her murdered husband but as a Negrense who wants justice to be given to all those who have been victims of violence and of oppression by the very same person who masterminded my husband's death,” said Mayor Degamo.

“I bring with me the fervent and the aspiration of every peace-loving citizen of Negros Oriental for a province that is free from the capricious and whimsical killing spree that has been perpetrated at the instance of the same mastermind who ordered the commission of the infamous March 4, 2023 Negros Oriental massacre,” she noted.

The mayor appealed for help to end the impunity in the province.

“That killings in Negros Oriental have to stop…we have here names…We are faced with a giant opponent, moneyed fueled by e—sabong, STL, by maybe even illegal drugs,” Mayor Degamo said.

The Degamo’s widow said she was with the family members of all those who suffered oppression and violence in Negros Oriental and some of those who survived assassination attempts in their lives, and the few who were able to overcome their assailants.

“Together we will speak the truth about how the people of Negros Oriental suffered in silence in the face of tyranny, oppression, violence, impunity, and of the excessive abuse of power and of influence by the very same people who masterminded the Negros massacre,” she added.

According to her, she and other orphaned families “intend to give a voice to those who have been cowed into silence, and to all those who have been intimidated in action and state of apathy because of an impending threat of death or injury to themselves and their family members.”

Former Negros Oriental governor Pryde Henry Alipit Teves, brother of the suspended congressman, who was present in the hearing, denied all the charges leveled against them. — FPL (FREEMAN)