BACOLOD CITY -- The Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas said it already had the information linking Negros Oriental Third District Rep. Arnolfo Teves as the alleged mastermind in the killing of Governor Roel Degamo prior to the revelation made by one of the arrested suspects on Thursday, March 9. In a statement, the regional police said the ‘declarations made publicly earlier by one of the suspects in the killing of Degamo were information that they already acquired from the moment they arrested the four suspects, six hours after the gun attack happened at Degamo’s residence in Pamplona town on March 4.’ “While we had these significant developments at hand at the early stage of the conduct of massive hot pursuit operations, we maintained that these be revealed in due time not to compromise the conduct of investigations,” the PRO-Central Visayas statement said. Degamo and eight others were killed when armed men barged into his residence and opened fire while he was speaking to his constituents. Seventeen others were wounded in the shooting incident. Three suspects were first arrested in Bayawan City hours after the deadly attack happened, while another was neutralized by the authorities in the said city. The fourth suspect was arrested the following day. The PRO-Central Visayas said that upon the completion of the necessary documents, they then turned over to the DOJ the suspects and the pieces of evidence as part of the process, with their extra-judicial confessions taken in accord with law. “When we forwarded the case for inquest, we already have the complete picture of what transpired before, during, and after the incident, including the identities of the suspects, to include the alleged mastermind,” the regional police office said. These have been the result of all the relentless operations conducted by our personnel on the ground immediately after the attack, they added. Currently, the prosecution of the case is under the control of the DOJ, after two of the suspects manifested their willingness to testify in court as state witnesses, they said. “With the strong perseverance of PRO-Central Visayas to solve the crime and our collaboration with other government agencies, we were successful in unmasking the perpetrators and mastermind in this unacceptable attack,” said Brig. Gen. Jerry Bearis, PRO-Central Visayas director, in a statement. “We are likewise confident that with the pieces of evidence at hand, all the persons involved in this killing will be properly prosecuted and justice served to the families,” he added. Intense political rivalry is one of the angles that authorities are probing in the assassination of Degamo. Degamo unseated Teves’s brother, former Bayawan City Mayor Pryde Henry Teves, in the gubernatorial contest after the votes of a nuisance candidate, ‘Ruel Degamo,’ was credited in his favor. The camp of Teves has yet to issue a statement regarding the said allegation. But, he earlier denied any involvement in the crime, claiming that others just wanted to pin him down.