Former Negros Oriental Governor Pryde Henry Teves said yesterday that he would not go into hiding after he was arrested for terror financing and later released on bail.
Teves had surrendered to authorities in Dumaguete City after learning that police personnel were looking for him to serve his warrant of arrest.
“I will face it squarely. It is my duty as a Filipino and as a Christian,” he said in a mix of Visayan and English.
“Don’t expect me to shun away, to run, to escape, to hide,” he added.
Teves posted P600,000 bail for three counts of violation of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.
He is the brother of expelled Negros Oriental Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr., believed to be the mastermind in the slay of Governor Roel Degamo.
The Anti-Terrorism Council declared both brothers as terrorists due to their involvement in murder cases in the province.
“If I am most wanted, I would have been hiding a long time ago,” the former governor said, adding that he was willing to cooperate with authorities for queries and investigation.
In a social media post, Degamo’s widow, Pamplona Mayor Janice Degamo, said she would “never stop fighting until every member of the Teves Terrorist Group faces justice for what they did to Roel and our province.”
Gunmen wearing military-style uniforms entered Degamo’s home and opened fire on March 4, killing nine, including the governor, in the country’s deadliest political attack in years.
A tenth victim died two months later.
Henry Teves was unseated as governor of Negros Oriental after the election commission declared in September 2022 that Degamo was the rightful winner of the election earlier that year following a vote count.
The month before Degamo was killed, the Supreme Court upheld the decision.
Ex-Representative Teves was expelled from the House of Representatives in August 2023 after he refused to return to the Philippines to face the murder allegations.
Last March, police in East Timor detained Teves at a golf driving range in the capital Dili after Interpol issued a “red notice” for his arrest.
Teves is in custody awaiting extradition to the Philippines where he faces multiple murder charges. (ABS-CBN News / Agence France-Presse)