Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep.Arnolfo "Arnie" Teves Jr. (Screenshot from Zoom)

Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo "Arnie" Teves Jr. claimed that he's more a "celebrity" in his home province than a feared political kingpin.

In an ABS-CBN TeleRadyo interview Wednesday, April 19, Teves--who is out of country--said that fellow Negrenses treat him like a showbiz personality since he gets swarmed for pictures everywhere he goes.

“Kung kahit saan-saan ako pumunta para din akong artista (I'm like a showbiz personality everywhere I go). I’m a celebrity. People want to have their picture taken, my picture taken with them," he said.

"Magpapaicture ka ba sa taong nakakatakot? Hindi naman ‘di ba?  Ganito lang kasimple yun boss: Kung nakakatakot ako ba't andaming nagpapa-picture sa akin?”

(Would you have your picture taken with a feared person? Of course not, right? It's this simple: If I'm a feared person, why are there so many having their picture taken with me?)" added the suspended congressman.

Teves is the focal person of a Senate panel investigation on the March 4 assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo. Teves, although he hasn't been charged yet, is being tagged as the mastermind.

In the hearings, Negros Oriental locals led by Degamo’s widow, Pamplona town Mayor Janice Degamo, have linked Teves to a series of politically-motivated acts of violence in the province.

Citing another piece of "evidence" of his popularity, Teves pointed to the number of his followers on social media.

"Tingnan niyo kung ilang followers nila sa social media at ilan followers ko (Look at their followers on social media and then look at my followers). I’m more of a celebrity than them so, wala naman yatang celebrity [na] nakakatakot (there is no celebrity that's fearsome)," he said.

The Visayas solon has refused to come home for fear of his life.