COOP-NATCCO Party-list Rep. Felimon Espares (left), Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. (MANILA BULLETIN, Facebook)

Embattled Negros Oriental 3rd district Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. is getting another chance to justify his continued absence from his duties as a member of the House of Representatives. 

COOP NATCCO Party-list Rep. Felimon Espares, chairman of the House Committee on Ethics, said Teves had been given 10 days to reply to a notice from the panel. 

"Will wait the reply within 10 days upon receipt of committee notice before any meting in this case [will] be conducted," Espares said Monday, Aug. 7. 

The committee took jurisdiction anew of the Visayas congressman's case last Aug. 1 after he failed to show up for work in the House. 

A day before this, Teves' second 60-day suspension for "disorderly behavior" lapsed. It's not clear when his office received the Espares panel's notice. 

Espares said that the committee would only convene again if the twice-suspended solon fails to reply. 

After this, the committee will have to recommend a new penalty against Teves. Espares said last month that the panel was already mulling the penalty of expulsion against Teves--the harshest penalty there is. 

Any recommendation would have to be approved in plenary by the 312 congressmen. 

Teves, who left the country last Feb. 28, has been tagged as the mastermind in the broad-daylight assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo. 

Teves' continued refusal to come back home and report for duty in the House has been branded as disorderly behavior by the ethics panel.