Personal items allegedly from the suspects involved in the murder of Governor Roel Degamo and eight others were seized by government operatives at a sugar mill compound reportedly owned by former Negros Oriental Governor Pryde Henry Teves on Thursday night, March 30.

Using a backhoe, the belongings were found buried within the 50-hectare HDJ-Bayawan Agri-Venture Corp.-Tolong premises at Barangay Caranoche in the province’s Sta. Catalina town.

The recovered items included assorted documents, identification cards, burned clothes, automated teller machine cards that reportedly belonged to some identified suspects.

A silencer, soldering iron, paraphernalia used to clean rifles, empty slugs of .45 caliber, a Swiss knife, and a tacker were also found.

The series of raids started last March 24, after a court judge in Mandaue City issued a search warrant.

During the weeklong raids, authorities seized several explosives, high-powered firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition within the sugar mill compound.

The operation was led by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group with the help of the Joint Task Force Negros.

Pryde Henry is the brother of suspended Negros Oriental Third District Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr., who was tagged as one of the masterminds in the killing of Degamo and eight others in Pamplona town on March 4.

Teves voluntarily surrendered some firearms and ammunition after he filed a waiver in Dumaguete City Hall of Justice on Thursday, to allow authorities to search his phone and bank accounts.

Teves wrote in his waiver that he was a “law-abiding citizen” with “nothing to hide and desires nothing but to simply live in peace.”

He told reporters that he had no plans to leave the country despite the possible filing of charges of illegal firearm possession and explosives against him./With a report from PNA / WDJ