The government has started the process of canceling the passport of fugitive and expelled Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla said.
“If you are a fugitive from justice, your right to travel is impaired basically. Teves’ passport is in the process of being canceled,” Remulla said. “You have a limit now on your constitutional right to travel when you are fugitive from justice and you cannot seek from a government for protection if you have a record that you are a fugitive from justice,” he added.
Arrest warrants have already been issued against Teves for multiplemurder charges in relation to the March 4, 2023 killings in Pamplona town in Negros Oriental. One of the 10 persons killed was Negros Oriental Gov. Roel R. Degamo.
Warrants of arrest have been issued against Teves for the murder of three persons in 2019 — former Negros Oriental board member and former National Bureau of Investigation agent Michael Dungog; Lester Bato, a bodyguard of Basay mayoralty candidate Cliff Cordova; and Pacito Libron, an alleged hitman associated with Teves.
Teves was also designated as a terrorist by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC).
Remulla said he believes that Teves is still in Timor-Leste, where the expelled legislator has filed an appeal for asylum.
“We don’t think he has a big chance to secure asylum,” he said.
Once Teves’ passport is canceled, Remulla said the DOJ will work out to place him in the red notice of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
He said the name of Teves as a fugitive will also be placed in the records of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crime.
Remulla earlier discussed with Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta, who visited Manila earlier this month, the possibility of handing Teves over to the Philippines despite the lack of an extradition treaty.
“I told him that we will be filing the necessary information, the necessary letters, to his office to inform them formally of the charges pending against Mr. Teves,” Remulla said.
“The duties of rendition are there and that under the United Nations agreement on terrorism, there is a duty for member-states to render unto the prosecuting country the body of any terrorist so that he may be held for trial,” he added.
Rendition refers to the transfer of persons from one jurisdiction to another, following prescribed legal proceedings.