A panel of prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) has summoned suspended Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. in connection with the murder accusations filed against him in connection with a succession of political killings in his home province.
According to Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Richard Fadullon, a panel led by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Mary Jane Sytat has been formed to investigate the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) murder complaints filed against Teves for his role in the March 4 attack in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, which killed then governor Roel Degamo and nine others.
Fadullon said that Teves, who has refused to return to the nation from overseas to face the investigation, has been summoned to answer the charges leveled against him.
On June 13, the DOJ launched a preliminary inquiry into the murder complaint.
Teves is also the subject of a separate murder case filed before the DOJ by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for his alleged role in a series of killings in Negros Oriental in 2019, including the ambush slaying of provincial board member Miguel Dungog in Dumaguete.
At a news conference last Tuesday, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla stated that the murder case investigation is proceeding to identify Teves as the perpetrator of the atrocity.
Remulla also chastised Teves for refusing to return home and ridiculing the legal system in social media posts.
Despite the recantations, the justice secretary claims that a former DOJ undersecretary on Teves' team bribed the suspected gunmen to retract their allegations.
