Former Negros Oriental 3rd District congressman Arnolfo A. Teves Jr. and two of his co-accused have been granted bail by a Manila regional trial court (RTC) in the 2019 killing of an alleged hitman reportedly linked to the former legislator.

Aside from Teves, also allowed to post bail in a resolution issued by RTC Judge Ryan Philipp L. Bartolome were accused Richard Cuadra and Ronaldo Pinili.

Teves was allowed to post bail of P500,000, while bail for Cuadra and Pinili was set at P250,000 each.

They were charged with murder, a non-bailable offense, for the killing of Pacito R. Libron on June 23, 2019 along the national road in Bayawan City in Negros Oriental.

In allowing the posting of bail, the RTC ruled: “The Court finds that the prosecution failed to show, establish and prove that the evidence of guilt is strong as to each accused in this case for the crime charged against them which is murder.”

Last January, another Manila RTC acquitted Teves, Cuadra, and Pinili of murder in the 2019 killing of Negros Oriental board member and former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agent Michael Dungog.

Despite his acquittal in one case and the posting of bail in another case, Teves could not be released from the detention facility of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) due to 11 other murder cases he is facing before the trial courts.

Teves was charged with murder for the death of Lester Bato, a bodyguard of Basay mayoralty candidate in Negros Oriental.

He is also facing 10 counts of murder, 13 counts of frustrated murder, and four counts of attempted murder in connection with the March 4, 2023 shootings in Pamplona, Negros Oriental that resulted in the death of governor Roel Degamo.

In the Libron murder case, Judge Bartolome granted the plea for bail after a “careful evaluation of all the witnesses for both sides and a judicious scrutiny of the TSNs (transcript of stenographic notes), as well as their respective evidence presented.”

Bartolome noted that during the bail hearings, witness Gemuel Hobro testified that Teves was the mastermind in the killing of Libron.

Hobro also testified that it was Cuadra who shot Libron and it was Pinili who drove the motorcycle used in carrying out the murder.

The court said that another witness identified as Rustico Guerian Jr. stated that he clearly saw Cuadra shoot the victim since the gunman was not wearing anything over his head to conceal his identity.

But the trial court noted that “the testimony of state witness Gemuel Hobro was riddled with inconsistencies as he kept changing his answers on multiple occasions.”

Also, the court noted that Hobro “testified on several matters which were not contained in his extrajudicial confession and supplemental affidavit which shows that these documents had a lot of missing details which are essential to the case.”

Thus, the court said that Hobro’s testimony regarding the incident was a stark contrast to what was written in his sworn statement.

“In an attempt to salvage these documents, Hobro claimed that he intentionally chose not to disclose some details since he planned on divulging them in open court,” the court said.

Thus, the court pointed out that “it would be unwise to consider his uncorroborated testimony as gospel truth without taking his narration with a grain of salt.”

As to Guerian, Judge Bartolome said “the Court is not persuaded with his narration as to how the killing of Pacito Libron went down.”

During the bail hearings, the prosecution also presented the victim’s wife Alma Libron.

But the court said that “she admitted that she could no longer remember what the two men were wearing” and that “she was sure that it was not accused Cuadra who shot her husband because she was familiar with his mannerisms and his build.”

After the grant of bail, the court set the initial presentation of the prosecution’s evidence on June 23, 2026 starting at 9 a.m.