House ready to submit 3rd penalty vs Teves, but what will it be?
At A Glance
- The House Committee on Ethics and Privileges has finalized its recommendation for a third penalty against the errant Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. , House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said.

Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. (Facebook)
The House Committee on Ethics and Privileges has finalized its recommendation for a third penalty against the errant Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr.
This was confirmed by House Secretary General Reginald Velasco in a chance interview with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 15.
Velasco said the committee will endorse its recommendation-slash-committee report for plenary action during session Wednesday, Aug. 16.
On Monday, Aug. 14, Velasco sat in the closed-door meeting of the ethics panel chaired by COOP NATCCO Party-list Rep. Felimon Espares wherein the subject of Teves' latest penalty recommendation was taken up.
Neither Velasco nor Espares spoke to media following the meeting.
Like with the two previous times the Espares panel sought to penalize Teves, the recommendation will have to be approved by the House members. There are 312 sitting congressmen, including Teves, in the 19th Congress.
Teves, a member of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), has been tagged as the mastermind in the March 4 assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo.
The controversial lawmaker left the country last Feb. 28, his last confirmed location being Timor Leste last May.
Teves' continued refusal to come back home and report for duty in the House has been branded as "disorderly behavior" by the ethics panel. This has earned him two 60-day suspensions plus his removal from his committee chairmanships.
Espares said late last month that his panel has begun to consider expulsion--the harshest penalty there is---against the Visayan.