Suspect-witnesses in Degamo slay clam up, Remulla sees recantations

The filing of murder complaints against suspended Negros Oriental Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. has been pushed back after several suspects-turned-witnesses in the assassination of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo have refused to cooperate, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said on Monday.

At a news briefing, Remulla said the Department of Justice (DOJ) had to review available records as six to seven suspects who are also witnesses have lawyered up and have refused to speak about the matter.

Remulla said he expected the witnesses to recant their statements.

“Some of them have refused to speak already and they have not issued another statement and we suspect that they will be changing their statements later on and may make recantation of sorts,” Remulla said.

“There are no recantations yet, but we expect that to happen. It's a tactic used by people who want to destroy their previous statements, citing several excuses but we expect these statements to hold out,” he added.

The DOJ earlier recommended the filing of murder charges against six suspects involved in the killing of Degamo.

Two suspects in the killing of Degamo named a certain “Cong Teves” as the person behind the fatal attack against the local official.

Remulla said that the filing of murder complaints against Teves would be set back for a day and a half.

Ten murder complaints will be filed against Teves as 10 people died in the incident, according to him. Aside from these, several other complaints of multiple frustrated murders and multiple attempted murders will also be filed.

Remulla said the development will not stop them from filing the proper cases against Teves as statements were given “much earlier and freely” in front of witnesses and Public Attorneys Office (PAO) lawyers.

“They were provided with lawyers by some people who are paying for their lawyers who were not there before and obviously, some people are interested in the statements that they want to give and now, they don't want to cooperate anymore with authorities,” Remulla said.

“The good thing here is that they’ve already said everything prior to lawyering up. It's a good thing that we already have their statements clearly said prior to everything else,” he added.

He said that the DOJ was developing other angles, and was looking at other legal theories, including the terrorism cases it intended to file.

Remulla earlier said that the DOJ would seek the designation and proscription of Teves as a terrorist to force him to surrender to authorities.

Where is Teves?

Asked where Teves is, Remulla said that Teves might be in another ASEAN country, the United States or South Korea.

Timor-Leste has denied the suspended lawmaker's request for political asylum.

Remulla said Teves entered Timor-Leste a week ago to seek asylum. The Department of Foreign Affairs then confirmed that this request was denied.

On Thursday, Remulla said Teves has asked Timor-Leste to reconsider.

Remulla said he was not expecting anything would change with Teves’ appeal. —NB, GMA Integrated News