Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers assigned at the country’s international airports were ordered to monitor and “intercept” suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., who is facing murder charges, should he arrive in the Philippines.
However, BI commissioner Norman Tansingco clarified that arresting Filipino nationals is not within the scope of the agency, saying the monitoring was part of its protocol.
“The BI wishes to clarify that such instruction is merely a part of the BI’s protocols in monitoring individuals who are the subject of high-profile cases,” the BI said in a statement.
“Coordination with local law enforcement agencies is crucial in the proper implementation of BI procedures,” it added.
Teves slammed the alleged order from Tansingco to “intercept” him when he returns to the country.
In a video message he posted on his social media Friday, Teves said in Filipino: “It’s finally out. So this is the real reason why they want me to return home. There’s now an order for me to be intercepted if I arrive.”
In his video message, Teves showed an encoded text of the order.
“This order came out before they even filed charges against me. This means that there was already an order to intercept me before I had a case,” Teves said.
He also dismissed the BI order as “obviously political persecution” and an abuse of his human rights.
Teves was tagged as the mastermind of the March 4 assassination of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, a charge he denies. He has been out of the country since Feb. 28 and has refused to come back home for fear of his life.
The Department of Justice on Friday said law enforcement agencies have gathered “substantial evidence” to support the designation of Teves as a “terrorist.”
Justice Undersecretary Jose Dominic Clavano IV said the pieces of evidence will be submitted to the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to support the recommendation of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remula against Teves.
Remulla had recommended the designation of Teves as “terrorist” under Republic Act No. 11479, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which created the ATC, as a way to pressure Teves into returning to the country.
“The ATC’s technical working group (TWG) is set to meet again to discuss the matter,” Clavano said, in a television interview.
“We can expect in this next TWG meeting, we would be able to see the progress of the evidence gathering and the case build up by the law enforcement agencies,” he added.
The DOJ official also said the National Bureau Investigation (NBI) had “other sources that told them about other incidents which were not even filed in court or with the prosecutor” and have “started to dig on the other incidents.”
“We also got a lot of materials from Senate hearings where a lot of these incidents were put to light as well,” he noted.
According to the Justice official, the process of designation by the ATC will be finished soon.
“I can give a [timeline] of about a month or so because the TWG has been very diligent in meeting and trying to figure out whether the designation can be done as soon as possible or we need to find more evidence,” he said.
On Wednesday, May 17, Teves was charged with 10 counts of murder, 14 counts of frustrated murder, and four counts of attempted murder in the March 4, 2023 killings of 10 persons, including Degamo. Eighteen other persons were also injured during the attack at Degamo’s residence in Pamplona town.
Five other persons were named as co-respondents of Teves. They were identified as Angelo V. Palagtiw, Neil Andrew Go, Capt. Lloyd Cruz Garcia, Nigel Electona, and a person identified only with the aliases “Gee-Ann, Jie-An,” reportedly a sister of Palagtiw.
The DOJ is expected to create a panel of prosecutors to evaluate and study the complaints. If the prosecutors find basis to proceed, summons are expected to be issued to require the respondents to file their counter-affidavits.
Lawyer Levito Baligod, the legal counsel of the Degamo family, had alleged that 62 other killings in Negros Oriental from 2012 to 2022 have been also attributed to Teves.
Meanwhile, Justice Assistant Secretary Jose Dominic Clavano on Friday confirmed that a former Department of Justice undersecretary managed to talk to some suspects detained at the National Bureau of Investigation for their alleged involvement in the March 4 killings.
However, Clavano declined to identify the former DOJ official.
“I would not like to divulge his name without further clearance from the higher ups. I think that information should be kept quite confidential first,” he said, in an interview with CNN Philippines.
Earlier, Baligod said a former DOJ undersecretary allegedly tried to bribe detained suspects “to stop their cooperation” in the investigation on the March 4, 2023 killings.
He too did not name the former DOJ official.
Eleven suspects in the Pamplona town killings are detained at NBI.
Clavano admitted that he first learned about the former DOJ official “when he (the former undersecretary) was actually there at the NBI.”
