Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo (Provincial Government of Negros Oriental)
MANILA – The Senate will present relatives of victims and witnesses to killings in Negros Oriental, including the widow of Governor Roel Degamo, in Monday’s hearing of the Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs.
It has yet to be decided whether Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr., the alleged mastermind in the assassination of Degamo and eight others on March 4, will be accommodated via videoconference after Pamplona town Mayor Janice Degamo, the governor’s wife, requested the Senate not to.
Teves has yet to return to the country despite the expiry of his personal travel authority on March 9.
He is suspended for 60 days until May 22, with House Speaker Martin Romualdez acting as caretaker of his district.
In a radio interview on Sunday, committee chair Senator Ronald Dela Rosa said he is expecting “explosive” revelations from about 30 resource persons.
“Maraming pasabog ang mga resource person na may alam sa mga (Lots of vital information are expected from the resource persons who have knowledge about) previous killing,” Dela Rosa said.
Mayor Degamo, who flew out of Dumaguete City on Saturday afternoon with about 40 others, asked the Senate not to allow Teves’ remote testimony.
“Allowing some participants to attend through Zoom/teleconferencing undermines the value and importance of our presence in the hearing, and it is unfair to those who will be attending personally,” Mayor Degamo said in her letter.
Mayor Degamo said some in her entourage will also attend the preliminary investigation of the Department of Justice. (Leonel Abasola/PNA)
