Remulla: 'No one will be spared' in NBI probe on Negros Oriental killings
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla declared on Thursday, March 9, “no one will be spared’ in the probe being done by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in the Negros Oriental killings.
Remulla was referring to the killings of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo and eight others last March 4 in the governor’s house in Pamplona town, and the deaths of three persons in 2019 in which Rep. Arnolfo A. Teves Jr. has been charged before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“We are investigating anybody with a possible culpability. We would not exempt anybody,” Remulla told journalists in an interview.
Remulla was with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. when they visited the wake Degamo.
He said he has heard of other deaths in Negros Oriental.
“What comes out is a pattern of impunity that we did not sense before. This is something so new to us. It’s very hard to imagine this happened before,” Remulla lamented.
Thus, he said, “there will be more cases filed about past incidents that were dismissed before, that were not attended to before but would not constitute double jeopardy on the part of the accused.”
“There may be more cases to be investigated besides even the three cases brought by Atty. Baligod here on Tuesday,” he said.
Lawyer Levito Baligod, legal counsel of the families of dead victims, was with the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation (PNP-CIDG) last Tuesday, March 7, in the filing of murder complaints at the DOJ against Congressman Teves Jr. for the 2019 killings of three persons including former provincial board member Miguel Lopez Dungog.
Baligod identified the two other victims as Lester Pialago Bato and Pacito Retes Libron.
Aside from Teves Jr., the complaint named as co-respondents his secretary identified only as Hannah Mae for three counts of murder; Richard Cuadra, three counts; Jasper Tanasan, two counts; Rolando Pinili, two counts; and Alex Mayagma, one count.