Negros Oriental 3rd District Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” A. Teves Jr. asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday, May 23, to dismiss the criminal complaint filed against him for the deaths of three persons in the province in 2019. Teves’s motion to dismiss was filed through his lawyer Ferdinand S. Topacio before the DOJ’s panel conducting the preliminary investigation. In the complaint filed March 7, 2023, Teves was charged with murder for the deaths of Negros Oriental provincial board member and former agent of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Miguel L. Dungog, Lester P. Bato, and Pacito R. Libron. In his motion, Teves told the panel of prosecutors that “the herein subject complaint for murder consisting of three charges be dismissed for utter lack of evidence to support a finding of probable cause.” The motion stated that “despite the attempt of the complainant to feign a plurality of evidence (i.e., affidavits of victims’ relatives, affidavits of investigation, photographs, deaths certificates, spot reports) the charges stands on the strength of the sworn statement of one Gemuel Hobro y Anlap (‘Hobro’), a confessed conspirator in the alleged killings, who in his two extra-judicial confessions dated March 4 and 12, 2013 (sic), respectively, casually states that each of these murders were ordered and funded by Teves and nothing more.” It pointed out that the March 4 extrajudicial confession of Hobro narrated that Richard Cuadra shot to death Dungog and Libron in separate places upon the order of Teves, while, Bato was killed by Rolando Pinili also at the instruction of the lawmaker. It also stated that P50,000 as operational fund was used in the three killings and Teves paid P200,000 for killing Dungog and P150,000 for killing Bato. The motion stated that Hobro also executed a March 12 supplemental affidavit that also showed that P50,000 as operational fund was used in the three killings and Teves paid P200,000 for kiling Dungog and P150,000 for killing Bato. “For lack of independent corroborative evidence, Hobro’s testimony is worthless as against his co-accused,” the motion also pointed out. Topacio explained “it is required that the testimony be substantially corroborated by other evidence in all its material points.” “While complainant accuses Teves as the inducer or a conspirator, nothing is shown as to his ‘inducement’ or participation in the conspiracy but the polluted and highly self-serving words of Hobro,” he said. He said that Hobro should be named as one of the respondents in the case considering he admitted of being a conspirator since he participated in the planning and took part of in the actual commission of the crime by serving as lookout in the killing of Dungog and Libron as well as the driver of a vehicle used in the murder of Dungog and Bato. “For these, he should be charged as an accomplice to the crimes, at the least,” he insisted. Teves, who is still abroad despite expiration of his travel authority last March 9, has also been charged before the DOJ with 10 murder, 14 frustrated murder, and four attempted murder in the killings of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel R. Degamo and nine other persons on March 4, 2023 in Pamplona town. He has been tagged as “one of the masterminds” in the Degamo killing.  He has denied the allegations against him.