Former Negros Oriental Governor Pryde Henry Teves yesterday filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the position of governor in the May 2025 midterm elections.

Teves, running under the Liberal Party (LP), was accompanied by Dumaguete Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo and other partymates during the COC filing at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) provincial office in Dumaguete City.

Teves, who won in the 2022 elections but whose victory was later overturned following a recount, told reporters that he is prepared to face whatever comes his way.

“Whatever is my destiny, whatever God gives to me, then I will accept it. We have no choice,” Teves said in Cebuano.

Should he be given a fresh mandate, he assured his constituents he would continue what he had started in the three months that he served as governor before he was ordered removed from office.

Teves was elected in 2022 and served as governor of Negros Oriental from June to October that year, but the Comelec annulled his proclamation following a recount of votes.

This stemmed from the disqualification case filed by the late Govenor Roel Degamo, who was seeking re-election then, against another candidate, Ruel Degamo.

Ruel was declared a nuisance candidate and the poll body ruled that the votes he garnered be counted in favor of Roel, who was later proclaimed governor after surpassing Teves’ votes.

Degamo was assassinated in his hometown in Pamplona on March 4, 2023, where nine other people were killed and many more injured.

Ousted Representative Arnolfo Teves Jr., then the congressman of the 3rd district of Negros Oriental and brother of Pryde, was tagged as the alleged mastermind in the killing of Degamo.

He is currently detained in East Timor with murder charges filed against him in relation to the Pamplona attack. He is also facing an extradition case. (PNA)