Remulla on Arnie Teves: All Timor-Leste has to do is deport him

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on Tuesday said that all the Timor-Leste government has to do is deport former Negros Oriental representative Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. back to the Philippines.

Remulla called Teves an “undocumented Filipino,” saying that his passport has been cancelled.

“All they have to do is deport him here. That’s all they have to do. For them to go into certain matters that are intrinsically local to us is a big stretch,” he said in an ambush interview.

This came following the Timor-Leste Court of Appeal's denial of the Philippine government's request to extradite Teves back to the Philippines.

According to Remulla, the DOJ will appeal the decision. 

“We’re filing a [motion for reconsideration] but there are other branches of government moving, especially that there were commitments made before,” he said.

“This matter is just a very simple matter of an undocumented Filipino who is accused of a crime to be returned to the country. For them to complicate it is a big stretch and you know there are a million reasons for this to happen,” he added.

When asked if other agencies are coordinating with the Timor-Leste government for the deportation of Teves, Remulla said “they have other things to say.” 

“It is not going to be pleasant for Timor Leste because they’re applying to be in the ASEAN and we’re one of the founding fathers of the ASEAN,” he said.

For his part, Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, Teves’ legal counsel, said that Remulla cannot ask Timor-Leste to do indirectly something that it cannot do directly.

“The decision of the TL court denying extradition was based on the ground that repatriating Mr. Teves would subject him to torture and cruel, degrading, and inhuman punishment in his country of origin, in violation of the TL Constitution,” Topacio said in a message to reporters.

“By asking Timor Leste to deport Mr. Teves would be asking TL to obliquely transgress its Constitution,” he added.

Topacio also said that the Department of Justice does not set the foreign policy.

Teves is facing multiple murder charges in the Philippines over the alleged killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo and others in March 2023.

Aside from this, Teves and others have also been charged with the alleged killings of three individuals in Negros Oriental in 2019.

Teves and 12 others have also been designated as terrorists by the Anti-Terrorism Council, citing several alleged killings and harassment in Negros Oriental.

He was expelled by the House of Representatives in August last year for disorderly conduct and continued absence.

The former lawmaker has repeatedly denied the allegations against him. —AOL, GMA Integrated News